Dr. Joseph Firth, PhD

Dr. Joseph Firth completed his PhD (Medicine) at the University of Manchester, U.K and has a BSc (1st Hons) in Psychology from the University of Sheffield, U.K. Currently, he is a UKRI Research Fellow at the University of Manchester and Honorary Research Fellow at Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust. Dr. Firth is internationally ranked as one of the most highly-cited scientists in the fields of Lifestyle Medicine, Nutritional Psychiatry and Mental Health, having published over 300 peer-reviewed papers on these topics. This includes clinical studies, evidence syntheses, meta-analyses, and epidemiological research in world-renowned journals such as The BMJ, The Lancet Psychiatry, World Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, and others. Dr. Firth’s published work has been cited over 30,000 times (h-index = 79) and he has retained the Clarivate™ “World Highly Cited Researcher” award in Psychology / Psychiatry for four consecutive years since 2020. Alongside this, Dr. Firth was awarded The USERN Laureate for Social Sciences in 2022 for his work on lifestyle medicine for mental health, and ExpertScape’s “World Expert” accolade in his field.

Dr. Firth is the Chair of the Lancet Commission on Physical Health in Mental Illness, an expert advisor on the World Health Organization’s “Guideline Development Group”, and co-author of the European Psychiatric Association’s 2024 Guidelines on Lifestyle Psychiatry. He has also engaged extensively with traditional and online media, with his publications around lifestyle and nutritional approaches to mental illness receiving coverage from >700 news outlets (including Times, Forbes, CNN, etc.) along with televised interviews on Sky News and BBC television.