Dr. Natasia Courchesne-Krak is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego. She has training and experience in multiple disciplines including psychiatry, clinical psychology, epidemiology, and genetics. Dr. Courchesne-Krak's research explores the phenotypic and genetic factors driving the development and expression of substance use disorders and other externalizing behaviors, with a focus on women, pregnant women, and children/adolescents.
Research Interests
Over the past 10 years, Dr. Courchesne-Krak has worked in the fields of psychiatric epidemiology, neuroscience, and genetics. She integrates state-of-the art bioinformatics approaches with small- and large-scale population datasets to advance our understanding of psychiatric conditions, such as substance use disorders (e.g., opioids, alcohol, stimulants, cannabis), and identify innovative strategies for treatment across the lifespan. Her work has investigated the impact of substance use on neurodevelopment, healthcare service utilization, morbidity, and mortality among children, adults, and pregnant women.
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Dr. Courchesne-Krak has diverse experience in quantitative research (e.g., data collection, advanced data analytics), public health intervention design and implementation, and grant writing. Interests include genetics, pregnant women, prenatal substance exposure, alcohol, opioid, stimulant, and cannabis use disorders, injection drug use, poly-substance use, infectious and chronic disease epidemiology, global health, and cultural impacts on health outcomes.
