Dr. Alok Kulkarni

Dr. Alok Kulkarni is a Senior Consultant and Interventional Psychiatrist based at Hubli in Karnataka. He has trained in psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, an Institute of National Importance (INI). He has also worked as a Senior Registrar in psychiatry at NIMHANS. He is a recipient of the prestigious IMH Marshall Fellowship Award for the year 2022-23. This post-doctoral fellowship award is instituted by the Centre for Excellence in Mood Disorders at the University of British Columbia (UBC) at Vancouver, Canada. As part of this award, he has researched bipolar disorder and difficult-to-treat depression under the mentorship of Professor Lakshmi Yatham, a world authority on mood disorders. He is also a full member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists of the United Kingdom after having passed the three part exam (MRCPsych) in the first attempt with high distinction. He is currently engaged in private practice in India, and has attachments to multiple regional hospitals in the capacity of a senior consultant. He works at the Manas Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, an exclusive 40-bedded tertiary care psychiatric hospital; this is the oldest and largest privately owned psychiatric hospital in the northern part of Karnataka. His areas of clinical, academic and research interest include mood disorders, non-invasive brain stimulation and general adult psychiatry. He is well-versed in administering non-invasive brain stimulation methods, and these include electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). He has also acquired specialist expertise in the use of intravenous and oral ketamine therapy for difficult-to-treat depression. He is also a part of the team that carries out naltrexone implants at Manas for difficult-to-treat substance use disorders. He consults at the Manas Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, a state-of-the-art centre for excellence in mood disorders in India, a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, in this niche segment. This centre delivers tertiary and quaternary care to persons with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, substance misuse and psychosis.