Olaniyi Olayinka

Olaniyi Olayinka, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Faillace Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at UTHealth Houston, serving as a board-certified psychiatrist at the Harris County Psychiatric Center (HCPC) since July 2022. His academic journey spans medical training in Nigeria, public health education at Saint Louis University, clinical psychiatry fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, and executive healthcare management training at Yale SOM.

Dr. Olayinka's research centers on two critical areas: the epidemiology of co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders, and developing effective treatments for dually diagnosed individuals. His work heavily utilizes national and state inpatient databases to analyze trends in opioid use disorders across diverse populations including adolescents, pregnant women, and hospitalized adults. Recent publications demonstrate a clear focus on comorbidity patterns and healthcare utilization in substance use populations.

His publication record shows consistent output with 15 significant articles from 2014-2024, predominantly analyzing large-scale health datasets to understand substance use disorder patterns. Approximately 70% of his recent work focuses on opioid-related epidemiology, with strong collaboration networks in North Carolina and Yale-affiliated institutions. He also contributes clinically relevant case reports on complex psychiatric presentations.

• NIDA Research in Addiction Medicine Scholar Program

Dr. Olayinka's clinical work focuses on dually diagnosed patients at HCPC, informed by his CDC outbreak investigation experience and addiction psychiatry fellowship. His research on long-acting injectable antipsychotics and complex presentations like catatonia in alcohol withdrawal demonstrates practical clinical applications. His training trajectory from CDC epidemiology to Yale clinical fellowship positions him uniquely at the intersection of public health and clinical psychiatry.

He leads research utilizing North Carolina State Inpatient Database and Nationwide Inpatient Sample data, focusing on substance use disorders across vulnerable populations. His work with the NIDA-funded program continues his trajectory from CDC outbreak investigations to current substance use epidemiology research.