The Department of Psychiatry at Indiana University School of Medicine is committed to understanding the symptoms and neurobiological basis of mental illness and advancing psychiatric treatments through extensive involvement in basic and clinical research and patient care. The department is also involved with educating and training future leaders of psychiatry and behavioral science.

The Department of Psychiatry recognizes the exemplary expertise of our distinguished faculty

Tamika C. Zapolski, MS, PhD, joined IU School of Medicine in September as an associate professor of clinical psychology. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Kentucky in 2013 and completed her internship at the University of Kentucky Medical Center. She holds clinical expertise in the delivery of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) for both adolescent and adult populations.

Dr. Zapolski’s research focuses on the risk of substance use and other health behaviors among African Americans. She recently developed a theoretical model for African American alcohol use, published in Psychological Bulletin. Using this theoretical model, she has expanded her research, focusing on the risk of marijuana use among African Americans. Specifically, she examines the interactive effect of cultural variables factors of drug choice, course of use, and consequences among African American youth and young adult populations.

She wears many hats, including director of the Prevention Research In Substance Use & Minority Health (PRISM) Lab and co-director of the newly formed Adolescent Behavioral Health Research Program (BHP). She is also a Learning for Early Careers in Addiction & Diversity (LEAD) program scholar and a mentored scientist with the Center for Translational and Prevention Science (CTAPS).

Her future plans include expanding the delivery of substance use interventions and DBT to school systems and youth-serving organizations across the state and within the medical settings. She also plans on developing and expanding the use of culturally adapted substance use interventions for racial/ethnic minority youth and adults.

We welcome Dr. Zapolski to the team and look forward to her significant contributions.

Anup Deshpande, MD, joined IU School of Medicine in August as an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry. He is a board certified adult psychiatrist, trained in geriatric psychiatry at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. His clinical interests lie in late-life depression, anxiety, and behavioral disturbances in dementia.

Dr. Deshpande has significant research experience as an assistant research scientist at the Center for Brain Health, NYU, where his work consisted of studying dementia, neuroimaging, and cerebral perfusion.

His future plans include setting up a geriatric psychiatry focused clinic at IU while working closely with other departments, such as geriatric medicine and neurology. He also plans on continuing his exploratory research surrounding dementia and neuroimaging.

We welcome Dr. Deshpande to the team and look forward to witnessing his research findings and continued success in his specialized areas.