Dr. Panu Khuwuthyakorn
Consultant Psychiatrist and Medical Reviewer, The Dawn
Every piece of clinical and treatment content published by The Dawn is reviewed for medical accuracy before it reaches the people who depend on it. That responsibility sits with Dr. Panu Khuwuthyakorn, a board certified medical doctor and one of Thailand’s leading addiction psychiatrists and detox specialists. He currently serves as Director of Nakhon Sawan Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital. Working alongside our clinical team, his role at The Dawn is to confirm that what we publish about addiction, mental health and recovery reflects sound medical understanding and current clinical practice.
Qualifications and certifications
Dr. Panu graduated from Chiang Mai University and has been licensed to practise medicine in Thailand since 1999. His qualifications include:
- Board certified by the Medical Council of Thailand in psychiatry, family medicine, and preventive medicine with a focus on community mental health
- Certified in Addiction Medicine, allowing him to assess the physical and psychological dimensions of substance use together rather than in isolation
- Early career at the National Psychiatric Institute, with a focus on mental health and addiction medicine
This dual grounding in psychiatry and addiction medicine is central to how The Dawn approaches dual diagnosis, where addiction and mental health conditions are treated as connected rather than separate problems.
Clinical experience
Dr. Panu currently serves as Director of Nakhon Sawan Rajanagarindra Psychiatric Hospital. Across more than two decades in medicine, his clinical experience includes:
- Senior roles across mental health, addiction and harm reduction services in Thailand
- Medication management and medically supervised detox, including methadone detox
- Treatment of co-occurring addiction and mental health conditions, supporting hundreds of clients with dual diagnosis, alongside direct work with trauma related disorders, depression and anxiety
He has also completed a clinical observership at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, Canada across its mood and anxiety, psychological trauma, addiction and general psychiatry programmes.
Areas of clinical expertise
Dr. Panu’s expertise spans dual diagnosis, medically supervised withdrawal and detox, medication management, and the treatment of trauma related disorders, depression and anxiety. This experience is what makes him well placed to review The Dawn’s published content: he sees, in practice, what accurate and responsible information looks like for the people reading it.
His role as medical reviewer at The Dawn
As medical reviewer, Dr. Panu fact checks new content covering addiction, detox, mental health and dual diagnosis. His review confirms that clinical descriptions, treatment information and medical claims are accurate and presented responsibly. For content that falls under health and wellbeing, where accuracy carries real consequences, this layer of medical oversight is part of how The Dawn maintains the trust of the people considering treatment.
The Dawn is the only CARF-accredited rehab in Asia, a distinction that reflects a wider commitment to evidence-based, internationally recognised standards of care. Dr. Panu’s medical review supports that same standard in the information we publish.