I am now an emeritus professor of psychological medicine, University of Manchester. My Fellowship enabled me to visit many sites in the USA to understand how the best community psychiatry programmes operate there. I also visited experts in psychosomatic medicine. I subsequently developed research programmes in both these areas, for which I was awarded Fellowship of the Academy of Medical Science.

I was European Editor of the Journal of Psychosomatic Research (1999-2011), President of the European Association of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatics (2001-2004) and a member of the USA DSM V and WHO ICD-11 Working Groups on the Classification of Somatic Symptom Disorders.

My research included the epidemiology and treatment of depression in developing countries, UK trials of community care for people with severe mental illness and the aetiology and treatment of bodily distress and other psychological disorders associated with medical disorders.