John Appiah-Poku

Faculty Biography

I am a Professor of Behavioral Science and l have an experience spanning over thirty-three years in the area of teaching and research, projects funded by NIMH, DFG, NUFFIC. I was Co-PI with my colleagues in Biochemistry to study the impact of blood glucose and cholesterol levels on the manifestation of psychiatric disorders as well as hyperlipidemia following treatment with antipsychotic medication. In an international collaborative research project l joined colleagues from the BNI (Bernard Notch Institution of Tropical Medicine, Germany) to study the effect of Depression and Anxiety in pregnant women on their offspring as Co-PI. More recently l joined a team of researchers from five Sub-Saharan African countries to study Collaborative Shared care to Improve Psychosis Outcome, a five-year study to provide evidence to support collaboration between Alternative Health Practitioners and Conventional Practitioners in the management of psychosis. Lessons learnt here include daring to be innovative in the management of old-fashioned psychosis and working together with people from different cultural backgrounds to address similar problems affecting people from a varied country origin. I am currently working with a group of psycho-social scientists to provide guidance and data gathering to the Presidential Coordinating Committee on Coronavirus in Ghana. I am confident that my experience in research will continue to contribute to knowledge.