My main research interest is evidence-based mental health and precision psychiatry. My research focuses on the evaluation of pharmacological, psychological and psychosocial interventions, mainly about major depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I have carried out many systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomised controlled trials in psychopharmacology, however in the past few years I have been also investigating relevant issues in epidemiological psychiatry and public health, like patterns of drug consumption, risk of serious adverse events (most of all, suicide and deliberate self harm) and implementation of treatment guidelines.

My interest in the methodology of evidence synthesis has now a specific focus on network meta-analysis and individual patient data meta-analysis, trying to assess the validity, breadth, structure and interpretation of these statistical approaches to better inform the mental healthcare decision-making process.

I have been working closely with world class academic institutions (Universities of Bristol, Cambridge and York in the UK; Universities of Ulm and Munich in Germany; University of Ioannina in Greece; Universities of Nagoya and Kyoto in Japan; University of Cape Town in South Africa) and important organisations, such as the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in Italy and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva. Together with the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at WHO I have co-authored a manual on psychopharmacology, which provided evidence-based information to health care professionals in primary care especially in low- and middle-income countries. This manual is part of the Gap Action Programme of the WHO and is distributed by WHO as a reference source to assist physicians working in the primary health care through increasing their knowledge and improving their routine clinical practice in using evidence-based medicines for mental disorders.

I am currently Editor in Chief of Evidence-Based Mental Health. I am also on the Editorial Board of the Lancet Psychiatry and the Australian and New Zealand Journal or Psychiatry.