W. Wolfgang Fleischhacker. Professor, Director 
Medical University of Innsbruck. Website
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Anichstraße 35, 6020 Innsbruck
Reseach subject
antipsychotics, schizophrenia, cognition, therapeutic drug monitoring, psychopharmacology, resilience
Summary
Schizophrenia Research (Wolfgang Fleischhacker, Alex Hofer)
Clinical Psychopharmacology
Past and ongoing studies focus on antipsychotics, ranging from early drug development in phase II clinical trials all the way to large-scale international pragmatic effectiveness studies. The underlying theme is always enhancing treatment options for patients with schizophrenia (e. g. EUFEST, EU FP 7 Optimise, EULAST).
Cognition
Both neuro- and social (affective) cognition present another focus of this research group. More recently the investigation of social cognition in symptomatically remitted patients suffering from serious mental illness has received much attention.
Resilience
Three ongoing studies investigate resilience and its biological correlates in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with a focus on religion and culture. The primary aim of these studies is to investigate
transcultural differences in resilience across patients from two different geographical regions, Austria and Japan, that have different religious and cultural backgrounds (i.e. Christianity and Buddhism).
Publications
- S. Kahn, W.W. Fleischhacker, H. Boter, M. Davidson, Y. Vergouwe, I.P.M. Keet, M.D. Gheroghe, J. Rybakowski, S. Galersisi, J. Libiger, M. Hummer, S. Dollfus, J.J. Lopez-Ibor, L.G. Hranov, W. Gaebel, J. Peuskens, N. Lindefors, A. Riecher-Rössler, D.E. Grobbee for the EUFEST study group: Effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs in first-episode schizophrenia and schizophreniform disorder: an open randomised clinical trial. Lancet, 2008 Mar 29;371(9618):1085-97
- S Miyamoto, N Miyake, Lf Jarskog, Ww Fleischhacker, Ja Lieberman. Pharmacological treatment of schizophrenia: a critical review of the pharmacology and clinical effects of current and future therapeutic agents. Mol Psychiatry, 2012, Dec;17(12):1206-27
- Wartelsteiner F, Mizuno Y, Frajo-Apor B, Kemmler G, Pardeller S, Sondermann C, Welte A, Fleischhacker WW, Uchida H, Hofer A. Quality of life in stabilized patients with schizophrenia is mainly associated with resilience and self-esteem. Acta Psychiatr Scand, 2016 Oct;134(4):360-7.
- B Frajo-Apor, A Hofer, S Pardeller, A Welte, T Plass, WW Fleischhacker, M Mühlbacher. Emotional Intelligence and Non-Social Cognition in Schizophrenia and Bipolar-I-Disorder. Psychol Med, 2017 Jan;47(1):35-42.
- G Németh, I Laszlovszky, P Czobor, E Szalai, B Szatmári, J Harsányi, A Barabássy, M Debelle, S Durgam, I Bitter, S Marder, WW Fleischhacker. Cariprazine versus risperidone monotherapy for the treatment of predominant negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia: A randomized, double-blind, active-comparator controlled trial. Lancet, 2017 Mar 18;389(10074):1103-1113.