Peter FalkaiPsychiatrist and neuroscientist

Psychiatrist and neuroscientist, Munich

Prof. Dr. med.Peter Falkai

Psychiatrist in Munich. His research asks how severe mental illness arises in the brain, schizophrenia above all, and how treatment and prevention can be improved.

  • Director of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at LMU University Hospital Munich, the clinic once led by Emil Kraepelin
  • Director at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry and head of its research hospital
  • Spokesperson of the German Center for Mental Health
  • President of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry
ResearchAll publicationsContact
Portrait of Prof. Peter Falkai
Photo: LMU Klinikum

One dot per paper

PubMed lists 1,009 publications under his name, from 1986 to today. One dot per paper, arranged by year.

First or sole authorSenior authorCo-authorHover or tap a dot to see the paper.

News

  • Online lecture: Mental gesund bleiben

    Lecture in the Mind Matters series of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry on what science recommends for staying mentally healthy (in German). Event page

  • New book: Mental gesund bleiben

    Together with science journalist Jeanne Rubner he summarises what research knows about preventing mental illness. Kösel, in German. About the book

  • Interview in Süddeutsche Zeitung

    "I send all my patients to exercise": on celebrities speaking openly about depression, risk factors and why even a daily walk to the newsstand can help (in German). Read the interview

  • Jean Delay Prize of the World Psychiatric Association

    The WPA presented its highest award to him in Stockholm for his lifetime contribution to psychiatry. Press release

Research focus

Four questions that have shaped his work for years. More on research

How schizophrenia arises in the brain

From his first paper on cell loss in the hippocampus to today's hypothesis of disturbed oligodendrocyte maturation: schizophrenia as a disorder of regeneration rather than degeneration.

Exercise as therapy

Can aerobic exercise increase hippocampal volume in schizophrenia and improve memory and daily life? Trials, mechanisms and the question of who benefits.

Early detection, targeted treatment

Imaging, genetics and machine learning are used to predict the course of illness so that patients receive the treatment that suits them.

Mental health care and prevention

Guidelines, health services research and the question of how mental illness can be prevented, including within the German Center for Mental Health.

Career

Five university hospitals in forty years. Full CV

  1. from 1981
    Düsseldorf
    Medical school, MD, board certification, habilitation
  2. 1987
    London
    Research with Tim Crow
  3. 1996
    Bonn
    Associate professor, senior consultant
  4. 2002
    Homburg/Saar
    First chair, department director
  5. 2006
    Göttingen
    Chair of psychiatry
  6. since 2012
    Munich
    LMU University Hospital, since 2024 also Max Planck Institute

Institutions and societies

Where he works, where he is a member and which societies he has led.

Most cited papers

Citations according to NIH iCite. All publications

  1. 2016Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia: Treatment Response and Resistance in Psychosis (TRRIP) Working Group Consensus Guidelines on Diagnosis and Terminology.Am J Psychiatry. 895 citations
  2. 2001Mind reading: neural mechanisms of theory of mind and self-perspective.Neuroimage. 624 citations
  3. 2018Machine Learning Approaches for Clinical Psychology and Psychiatry.Annu Rev Clin Psychol. 577 citations
  4. 2012World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Guidelines for Biological Treatment of Schizophrenia, part 1: update 2012 on the acute treatment of schizophrenia and the management of treatment resistance.World J Biol Psychiatry. 454 citations
  5. 2018EPA guidance on physical activity as a treatment for severe mental illness: a meta-review of the evidence and Position Statement from the European Psychiatric Association (EPA), supported by the International Organization of Physical Therapists in Mental Health (IOPTMH).Eur Psychiatry. 449 citations
  6. 2010Hippocampal plasticity in response to exercise in schizophrenia.Arch Gen Psychiatry. 434 citations

Contact

For research collaborations, lectures, expert opinions or media requests, please contact Prof. Falkai through his office at LMU University Hospital.

Get in touch