Staff Detail | University of Port Harcourt For Enlightenment & Self Reliance

ADIUKWU FRANCES NKECHI

Senior Lecturer

Name

Dr Adiukwu Frances Nkechi

Date of Birth

N/A

Marital Status

Married

Hometown

N/A

State of Origin

Imo

Local Government Area

Aboh Mbaise

Country

Nigeria

Department

MENTAL HEALTH

Faculty

College of Health Sciences/Clinical Sciences

Designation

Senior Lecturer

Departmental Unit

nil

Brief Biography

Dr Frances Nkechi Adiukwu is a psychiatrist and clinical researcher. She is a fellow of the West African College of Physicians, faculty of psychiatry (having completed her dissertation on biomarkers in mood disorders in 2018), and a member of the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria. She is a senior lecturer at the Department of Mental Health at the University of Port Harcourt and a consultant psychiatrist at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, where she heads the mood disorder unit. She was awarded and has completed a research fellowship in bipolar disorder at the Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program in Ann Arbor, USA. She trained in implementing and maintaining a longitudinal study of bipolar disorder, organising complex data, and coordinating a research program in 2023.

She is the recipient of several local and international awards, such as the early career psychiatrist fellowship award of the World Psychiatry Association (2017, 2021), the Young Investigator award of the World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (2021), and the EMCC travel award of the International Society of bipolar Disorder (2025). Her clinical and research focus is on mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder. She has authored over 40 publications in international peer-reviewed journals. She currently serves on the suicidal prevention task force and Early Mid-Career Committee of the ISBD. She is working with the ISBD to produce culturally sensitive training modules for bipolar disorder for African physicians. She is also a member of the Hospital Research and Ethics Committee (HREC) of UPTH.

She is the head of the bipolar disorder research group in Nigeria, where she oversees several research projects on bipolar disorder and is the principal investigator of the bipolar disorder logitudinal study Nigeria, where they are following up a cohort of bipolar disorder patients over 5 years to understand the presentation, course and outcomes of bipolar disorder in Nigeria.