Scott Schobel, M.D., M.S.
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry

Division of Translational Imaging,
Columbia University Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute

Medical Director, Center of Prevention and Evaluation,
New York State Psychiatric Institute

Scott Schobel, M.D., is Medical Director of the Center of Prevention and Evaluation (COPE), a longitudinal cohort study of young people who are at increased risk for psychosis, as compared to their peers. Dr. Schobel trained in Psychiatry at Columbia and the NYS Psychiatric Institute and completed fellowship training in the laboratory of Dr. Scott Small (Neurology), and in Columbia’s Center of Prevention and Evaluation (COPE) clinic, directed and founded by Dr. Cheryl Corcoran.

As a fellow, Dr. Schobel led a collaborative study between the Small lab, Dr. Dolores Malaspina, and the Corcoran clinic applying a high resolution variant of functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) in this cohort of individuals to identify markers of illness risk and progression in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

This research has shown that hyperfunction of the CA1 subfield of the hippocampal formation predicts clinical progression to psychosis from a high-risk state, characterizes schizophrenia itself, and is associated with the positive and negative symptoms of sub-threshold psychosis. Dr. Schobel is currently validating these preliminary findings in a larger cohort of individuals at high risk for psychosis. In order to translate clinical findings into new treatments for the disorder, he has begun a series of studies which target hippocampal dysfunction in mouse models of disease with glutamate-modulating therapies using real-time glutamate bioassay and high resolution functional magnetic resonance.

He is the recipient of research grants from NARSAD, the Paul Janssen Fellowship in Translational Neuroscience, and NIH. The guiding theme of his work is biomarker discovery in schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders and development of more effective therapeutics targeted at pre-clinical stages of schizophrenia, with the ultimate aim of prevention through valid risk identification and targeted treatment.

Education and Training

Undergraduate:  Univ. of Minnesota, B.A., Japanese summa cum laude, 1991-1995
Graduate:  Columbia University Mailman school of public health, M.S., 2007-2009
Medical School:  Univ. of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, M.D., 1995-2001
Internship:  Columbia University Medical Center, 2001-2002
Residency:  Columbia University Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, 2002-2005
Fellowship:  Columbia University Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute, 2005-2009
Board Certifications:  American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, May 2006

Specialties

• Clinical high risk research in psychotic disorders
• High-resolution brain imaging using structural and functional magnetic resonance
• Late adolescent/young adult general psychiatry including diagnosis and treatment of the clinical high risk mental state

Contact information

Address:
PH
Room 18-403; 4807 (NYSPI)  Unit/Box:
622 West 168th St
New York, NY   10032

Phone: 212-543-5064
ss2054@columbia.edu

Publications