Anne Farmer is emeritus professor of psychiatric nosology at the Institute of Psychiatry and was formerly lead consultant in the Affective Disorders Unit at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the trust's director of medical education.
In 1980 she worked for 18 months at the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, with Drs Lee Robins, John Helzer and Linda Cotler, as a member of the Epidemiological Catchment Area (ECA) study research team.
Her doctorate, awarded in 1987, applied novel statistical procedures to the psychopathology of schizophrenia to refine the classification.
She returned to the Institute of Psychiatry and Maudsley Hospital in London in 1998, where she was appointed professor of psychiatric nosology.
She has written over 200 peer reviewed papers, as well as numerous book chapters, review articles and editorials on wide-ranging research interests, including classification, the aetiology of schizophrenia and affective disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome and ethical aspects of genetic research.