His doctorate was on the ethnopsychological concepts in Maori culture. His early work in Neuropsychiatry was on drug-induced movement disorders, in particular akathisia, tardive dyskinesia and neuroleptic malignant syndrome. His most recent work has been in dementia and pre-dementia syndromes, in particular relating to neuroimaging, neuropsychology, biomarkers and risk factors. He has extensively examined the outcome of psychosurgery, and is currently involved in examining brain stimulation techniques (TMS, DCS, VNS and DBS) for psychiatric disorders. Dr. Sachdev is past-president of the International Neuropsychiatric Association and inaugural Chair of the Section of Neuropsychiatry of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He is a past-President of the International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmacology, Medical Adviser and Founding Executive Member of the Tourette Syndrome Association of Australia, and Chief Medical Adviser to Alzheimer’s Australia.

In 2012, he co-founded CHeBA at UNSW, which promotes brain health and prevention of dementia. He leads three longitudinal cognitive ageing studies: Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, Older Australian Twins Study and Sydney Centenarian Study; three international networks: COSMIC, STROKOG and ICC-Dementia. He has published 5 books, 3 edited books, 57 book chapters and >600 peer-reviewed papers. His H-index is 90 with >29,000 total citations via Google Scholar. His recent books are The Yipping Tiger and Other Tales from the Neuropsychiatric Clinic and Secondary Schizophrenia. He has also published a book of poems: A migrant’s musings and other offerings to an adopted land.

Prof Sachdev was NSW Scientist of the Year for Biomedical Sciences (2010) and appointed Member of the Order of Australia (2011) for service to medical research in the field of neuropsychiatry. He was awarded the Founder’s Medal by the Australian Society for Psychiatric Research (2011) and was an International Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (2012). He received the UNSW Medicine Dean’s award (2014) for outstanding contribution to research and teaching and became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (2015).