Bio


Dr. Dandekar is the Associate Director of Sports Psychiatry and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Stanford University. After graduating summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering, he earned a Regents Scholarship to complete his M.D. at UC San Diego, where he received the American Academy of Neurology’s Prize for Excellence. During his residency and fellowship at Stanford, Dr. Dandekar provided care to a variety of patients utilizing a combination of medication management, psychotherapy, and lifestyle changes (sleep, nutrition, exercise, recovery). Teamed with Clinical Professor Dr. Douglas Noordsy, he helped to incorporate psychiatric services into Stanford's sports psychology program, and continues to see elite athletes as part of the Stanford Sports Psychiatry Clinic. He also specializes in treating physicians, and sees many residents, fellows, and attendings in his private practice. In his free time, he enjoys playing tennis, chess, and guitar.

Clinical Focus


  • Psychiatry

Academic Appointments


Honors & Awards


  • Annual Chairman's Award for Clinical Innovation and Service, Stanford Department of Psychiatry (April 1, 2020)

Professional Education


  • Medical Education: University of California San Diego School of Medicine (2014) CA
  • Board Certification: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, Psychiatry (2018)
  • Fellowship, Stanford University Department of Psychiatry, Student Mental Health and Sports Psychiatry (2019)
  • Residency: Stanford University Adult Psychiatry Residency (2018) CA

All Publications


  • Supervising Scholarship Supervision in psychiatric practice: practical approaches across venues and providers Dandekar, F., Bandstra, B., Corcoran, K., DeGolia, S. American Psychiatric Association Publishing. 2019: 259–262
  • Periorbital edema secondary to positive airway pressure therapy. Case reports in ophthalmological medicine Dandekar, F., Camacho, M., Valerio, J., Ruoff, C. 2015; 2015: 126501-?

    Abstract

    Two patients developed bilateral, periorbital edema after initiating positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy with a full face mask. The periorbital edema was more pronounced in the morning and would dissipate throughout the day. This phenomenon seemed to be correlated with the direct pressure of the full face mask, which may have impaired lymphatic and venous drainage. To test this hypothesis, each patient was changed to a nasal pillow interface with subsequent improvement in the periorbital edema.

    View details for DOI 10.1155/2015/126501

    View details for PubMedID 25767727

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC4342174

  • Exploring the neural correlates of visual creativity SOCIAL COGNITIVE AND AFFECTIVE NEUROSCIENCE Aziz-Zadeh, L., Liew, S., Dandekar, F. 2013; 8 (4): 475–80

    Abstract

    Although creativity has been called the most important of all human resources, its neural basis is still unclear. In the current study, we used fMRI to measure neural activity in participants solving a visuospatial creativity problem that involves divergent thinking and has been considered a canonical right hemisphere task. As hypothesized, both the visual creativity task and the control task as compared to rest activated a variety of areas including the posterior parietal cortex bilaterally and motor regions, which are known to be involved in visuospatial rotation of objects. However, directly comparing the two tasks indicated that the creative task more strongly activated left hemisphere regions including the posterior parietal cortex, the premotor cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and the medial PFC. These results demonstrate that even in a task that is specialized to the right hemisphere, robust parallel activity in the left hemisphere supports creative processing. Furthermore, the results support the notion that higher motor planning may be a general component of creative improvisation and that such goal-directed planning of novel solutions may be organized top-down by the left DLPFC and by working memory processing in the medial prefrontal cortex.

    View details for DOI 10.1093/scan/nss021

    View details for Web of Science ID 000318315600017

    View details for PubMedID 22349801

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC3624959