Carsten Hjorthøj, PhD, Copenhagen Research Center for Mental Health and University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Dr Carsten Hjorthøj is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Public Health at the University of Copenhagen and a research leader of the Copenhagen Research Center for Mental Health.
Dr Hjorthøj has conducted a range of high-quality epidemiological studies within the nationwide Danish registers on cannabis and other substance use in relation to psychiatric disorders, allowing for a complete elimination of the risk of selection bias present in most other studies. Based on these studies, the scientific community now has much stronger indications on the bidirectional and increasing associations between substance use and schizophrenia; the poor prognosis related to substance use, including highly increased mortality; and the overlooked area of substance-induced psychosis.
In addition to this, Dr Hjorthøj's research focuses on improving treatment for some of the most severely affected psychiatric populations in Denmark who are often completely overlooked, including dual diagnosis patients, patients suffering from homelessness, and other marginalized populations.
Abhijit Nadkarni, MBBS, DPM, MRCPsych, MSc, PhD, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK
Dr Abhijit Nadkarni is a NIHR Professor of Global Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). He is an addiction psychiatrist and global mental health researcher conducting research aimed at developing and evaluating interventions for increasing access to mental healthcare in low resource settings. His host institution in India is Sangath, a mental health research NGO, where he is the Director of the Addictions and Related Research Group.
He is actively involved in the capacity building of mental health researchers and lay health workers in India and overseas, including Nepal, Kenya, and Uganda. He teaches on various MSc courses at the LSHTM and serves as the Course Director for the annual short course on Leadership in Mental Health.
Dr Nadkarni is on the State Mental Health Authority for Goa, State Mental Health Policy drafting committee for Maharashtra, and served on the task force of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that developed the mental health operational guidelines for the Ayushman Bharat Program.
Laura Orsolini, MD, MSc, Polytechnic University of Marche, Italy
Dr Laura Orsolini is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Experimental and Clinical Neurosciences at the Polytechnic University of Marche.
Her main research interests include novel psychoactive substances, new addictions (e.g., web-based psychopathologies, behavioral addictions), youth mental health, digital psychiatry, and psychopharmacology.
Dr Orsolini serves as the Secretary of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA) section on Digital Psychiatry, Committee Member of the EPA section on Addictive Behaviours, Board Member for the International Society for Addiction Medicine's New Professionals Exploration, Training & Education committee, among others. She also serves as an Editorial Board Member for BMC Psychiatry.
Ti-Fei Yuan, PhD, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, China
Dr Ti-Fei Yuan is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Shanghai Mental Health Center, affiliated with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine.
His research focused on neural mechanism of drug addiction and brain stimulation based treatment for psychiatric disorders. Combining animal models and clinical approaches, Dr Yuan explores the neurophysiological changes and cognitive mechanisms underlying addiction. Based on the circuitry and brain plasticity findings, he works to develops targeted brain stimulation therapy using magnetic, electrical, and ultrasound based techniques.
