His interests include the study of depression, anxiety, PTSD, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), homeopathy, spirituality, resilience and psychiatric biography, including the mental health of political leaders. He has conducted pioneer research into use of the MAOI (monoamine oxidase inhibitor) drugs. In 1987, he established the Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Program at Duke University. The research and training activities of that program encompassed clinical psychopharmacology trials, comparisons of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for anxiety and PTSD, neurobiology, clinical psychometrics and the development of new scales. Dr. Davidson’s group has investigated the concept of resilience and its relation to therapy. He and his colleagues have completed a number of controlled trials of CAM, including herbal and nutritional supplement. These were funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). One of these NCCAM-funded studies was the landmark multicenter trial of St. John’s wort in major depression.

Currently, my research focuses upon the theoretical aspects of homeopathy and its clinical utilization, as well as the broader field of alternative (complementary) medicine. this is a field which has traditionally been overlooked as a legitimate scientific discipline. Other areas of activity are as in the past, i.e., clinical treatment, epidemiology, risk factors, pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress, social phobia, other anxiety status, and depression. These are illustrated by recent publications on treatment, epidemiology, health service utilization and quality of life in social phobia and PTSD, drug treatment of panic disorder. Magnetic resonance studies of social phobia have been completed and further studies are planned.