MD, DPM, CCST (UK) Professor of Psychiatry
Formerly Head, Department of Psychiatry & De-addiction Services;
& Resource Centre for Tobacco Control,
Head, National Coordinating Unit ICMR Task Force on Capacity Building for NMHP Projects,
Centre of Excellence in Mental Health,
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences &
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi
(Central Health Services, Government of India).
Head, Central India Unit of UNESCO Chair in Bioethics Haifa. Member, International Forum of teachers (UNESCO Bioethics Haifa) Co-Chair, World Psychiatry Association Section on Genetics World Health Organization International Consultant Chair and convener of Task Forces for the Indian psychiatric Society
Administration :
Dr. Smita Deshpande served as the Head, Dept. of Psychiatry and De-Addiction, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (now Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Medical Sciences) Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, (Ministry of Health, Government of India) New Delhi from July 2004 to September 2018, superannuating in June 2021. She has been actively involved in clinical services, teaching and research since joining Central Health Services, Government of India in 1987. She was instrumental in upgrading her Department to a Centre of Excellence and starting three sub-departments in the Centre. She initiated the Yoga Centre at the Dept. of Psychiatry in 2005. She started Tobacco Cessation Service and subsequently upgraded it to Resource Centre for Tobacco Control at the Department. The Department, under her leadership, was declared as Centre of Excellence in Mental Health by the Ministry of Health, Government of India, in 2017.
Teaching, examiner and post graduate education :
Under her leadership, DNB course and subsequently MD in Psychiatry was started at Dr RML hospital. She initiated The MPhil Clinical Psychology course in 2015 and two more courses. Diploma in Psychiatric Nursing and MPhil Psychiatric Social Work in 2016.
She has been conducting Fogarty International Centre; NIH USA funded Post Graduate Training Programmes in Research in Implementation and Intervention studies and in Psychiatric Genetics since 2004. She has guided MD and DNB theses. She is an examiner for MD, DM and PhD for universities and boards all over India including at AIIMS and NIMHANS.
Research :
She began her research career with systems research for Indian scientists in Antarctica funded by Dept. of Ocean Development Government of India, and Indian agricultural scientists funded by Indian Council of Medical Research in 1988.
She became the first Indian researcher to initiate research in schizophrenia genetics in India in 1992. Since then she has conducted more than 36 research projects in schizophrenia genetics, clinical trials, psychosocial aspects, disability and rehabilitation in schizophrenia. Her research has been funded by various Ministries of the Government of India, Ministry of Science and Technology, Dept. of Biotechnology, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Dept. of Ocean Development, NIMH Secunderabad, Central Council for Yoga and Naturopathy, Central Council for Ayurveda and Siddha, and the Indian Council of Medical Research. International agencies which have funded her research are World Health Organization, Fogarty International Centre, National Institutes of Health USA, American psychiatric Association, DFID UK, and the Stanley Medical Research Institute. She has been involved in research in yoga as a tool for cognitive improvement in major mental disorders since 2006. She has conducted several clinical trials, for both national and international pharma and CROs, and investigator initiated.
She is one of the leading researchers in autism in India and was instrumental in developing and publicising the Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism (ISAA) which is recognized by the Government of India as the only instrument for certifying disability among Indian children with autism. In 2021, her group published the Indian Autism Screening Questionnaire (IASQ) as a population based ten item simple screening tool for autism. She is also involved in field testing new tools for dyslexia assessment.
National and international assignments :
She was member of the core group which developed the Indian Scale for Assessment of Autism for quantifying disability in persons with Autism. The ISAA is now the legal tool for certifying disability in autism under the Rights of Persons with Disability Act 2016. She was a member of the Governing Council of NIMHANS Bengaluru (Selection Committee and Academic Committee) for three years, until 2017. She is a member of the Subject Expert Committee for matters related to approval of (a) clinical trials, (b) new drugs and (c) new medical devices for Neurology and Psychiatry of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization of the DGHS, MOHFW, Govt. of India. She was involved in developing the Tobacco Dependence Treatment Guidelines for the National Tobacco Control Programme. She is an inspector for various national agencies such as the National Board of Examinations, Medical Council of India, National Mental Health Programme, Ministry of Health etc.
Ethics :
She was a member of the group drafting medical research guidelines for vulnerable groups, of the expert committee of Indian Council of Medical Research for ICMR Guidelines 2017. She led a group drafting ethical guidelines for research among cognitively impaired, sponsored by the ICMR. She is Head, Central India Unit of the UNESCO Bioethics Chair, Haifa since 2014. She was Chairperson, Institutional Ethics Committee of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences and a member of several Ethics Committees and Chaired an Ethics Committee for an ICMR Task Force project, as well as member of the Public Health Foundation of India, New Delhi and the ethics member of the Sri Sathya Sanjeevani Research Foundation, Palwal, Haryana.
Advocacy :
She is involved in advocacy for mentally ill persons and their families, public health education and rehabilitation. She is a member of several NGOs striving to improve the conditions and fighting for the rights of the Mentally Ill, and for women through WILGA (Women’s Initiative for Liberation, Growth and Action).
Reviewer:
She is a reviewer for several national and international journals and member of several scientific societies. She has authored numerous books, book chapters and more than 100 research papers. She is actively involved in the mental health movement.
Publications:
She has more than 100 publications in national and international journals to her credit, several book chapters and has published patient education material.
Online references to her work and profile:
