The contribution of Professor Paolo Pancheri to Italian psychiatry

Professor Paolo Pancheri (Milan, 1938 - Rome, 2007) held a central place in the history of contemporary Italian psychiatry. As a psychiatrist and psychopathologist, he successfully combined a solid clinical background with a constant openness to methodological and scientific innovation. 

Full Professor of Psychiatry at the 1a Facoltà di Medicina e Chirurgia of the Sapienza University of Rome and Head of the Servizio speciale di Medicina Psicosomatica e psicofarmacologia  (Special Service of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychopharmacology), he also served as Director of the residency program in Psychiatry at Sapienza University, where he became a key reference point for several generations of psychiatrists. His work significantly contributed to strengthening the Italian psychopathological tradition and integrating it into an international dialogue, promoting empirically based assessment tools and innovative methodologies without sacrificing clinical depth or human sensitivity. Deeply convinced of the fundamental role of psychopathology, he was among the first in Italy to understand the need to reconcile the descriptive richness of classical psychopathology with the necessities of evidence-based psychiatry. He played a leading role in the dissemination and validation of psychometric instruments that made a more accurate measurement of psychopathology possible, deeply impacting both clinical and research settings. With pioneering foresight, at the end of the 1970s he introduced the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) to Italy, overseeing its standardization. Today, this instrument is widely used in clinical, academic, and forensic settings. His computer-based scoring version represented an early digital revolution in the application of this invaluable tool.  

Professor Pancheri also actively contributed to the development of psychopharmacology in Italy. During crucial years for the introduction of new psychopharmacological treatments, he promoted decisive clinical studies and helped disseminating a culture of prescription grounded in scientific evidence and individualized pharmacological approaches. His position consistently emphasized integrating the biological, psychological, and social dimensions, supporting a global approach to the patient and anticipating the now widely promoted biopsychosocial model. 

Research on stress was only one of the fields in which he left a profound mark. Since the 1970s, he had been interested in the role of psychological factors in the onset and course of somatic illnesses, contributing to the development of the psychobiology of stress in Italy. He conceptualized stress as a measurable and clinically relevant construct and authored works that became the foundation of the psychosomatic approach to stress and its physical and mental consequences. 

In the preface to Stress, emozioni e malattia – Introduzione alla Medicina Psicosomatica ¹ he wrote: “Nell’uomo (...) la presenza di minacce di tipo esclusivamente simbolico e la complessità dei rapporti sociali rendono spesso impossibile una riduzione immediata dell’attivazione emozionale e lo stimolo può dunque persistere nel tempo” and “Appare dunque particolarmente interessante conoscere le reazioni sistemiche dell’organismo a stimoli psicosociali di varia natura, come tali reazioni interferiscano tra di loro o con i bioritmi, e come si possano creare le condizioni di stress cronico che producano il rischio psicosomatico” (“In humans (…) the presence of purely symbolic threats and the complexity of social relationships often make it impossible to immediately reduce emotional activation, and thus the stimulus may persist over time,” and “It is therefore particularly interesting to know the systemic reactions of the organism to psychosocial stimuli of various kinds, how these reactions interfere with each other or with biorhythms, and how conditions of chronic stress may arise that generate psychosomatic risk”). His work represented a pioneering contribution to the dissemination of a scientifically grounded psychosomatic perspective, capable of linking emotional experiences, cognitive processes, and neuroendocrine responses. Through his studies, Professor Pancheri anticipated today’s consolidated lines of research in psychoneuroendocrinology and psychoimmunology, highlighting how stress reactions can modulate not only mental health but also vulnerability to and progression of chronic medical conditions. 

Following these pioneering interests, in the 1980s he introduced biofeedback to Italy and founded the Società Italiana di Biofeedback (Italian Society of Biofeedback).  

In his scientific work, Professor Pancheri proposed and validated the dimensional perspective in psychopathology as an integration of the traditional syndromic approach. In this model, a psychopathological dimension is defined as an altered mental function phenomenologically expressed by a set of signs and symptoms that are both indicative and specific of that dysfunction ². From the dimensional perspective, the difference between normality and pathology is primarily quantitative rather than qualitative. 

In 1990, he provided a unique contribution to the foundation of the Società Italiana di Psicopatologia (Italian Society of Psychopathology - SOPSI), which for over thirty years has represented a meeting point for Italian and international scholars and clinicians. Thanks to his institutional vision and his aim to revitalize the Italian psychopathological tradition, SOPSI reinforced the dialogue between Italian research and major international scientific societies. In an editorial published in 1999, Professor Pancheri emphasized the motivations behind the Society’s foundation, identifying several goals, including the revival of general and clinical psychopathology in Italy, the integration of classical psychopathology with new advances in neuroscience, neuroimaging, psychopharmacology, and research methodology, and the strengthening of Italian psychiatric research at a time when national reforms had focused mainly on service organization and patient care. 

He also participated in the foundation of the Giornale Italiano di Psicopatologia (Journal of Psychopathology) in 1995, serving as its editor-in-chief until his death. His editorial direction was distinguished by a balance between interdisciplinary openness and rigorous scientific standards. With the founding of the journal, he created a reference platform for publishing clinical and research work. Today, the Journal of Psychopathology stands out internationally for its innovative scientific contributions and its unique perspective on psychopathological approaches in both clinical and research settings. 

Professor Pancheri organized numerous courses and contributed to scientific periodicals such as the Rivista di Psichiatria, the Bollettino della Fondazione Italiana per lo Studio della Schizofrenia, and the international journal New Trends in Clinical and Experimental Psychiatry. He was also among the editors of the Trattato Italiano di Psichiatria ³ (Italian Treatise of Psychiatry), which became a cornerstone in the education of medical students and psychiatry residents across generations. Always mindful of the need for continuous updating, he later established the Istituto del Trattato (Institute of the Treatise), dedicated to maintaining biannual revisions. 

The legacy of Professor Pancheri is broad and multifaceted. Scientifically, he consolidated in Italy the culture of psychometric measurement and promoted the study of stress and psychosomatics within a multidisciplinary framework. Institutionally, he created spaces for dialogue and collaboration that continue to nurture the growth of Italian psychiatry. His students and later generations remember him as a demanding yet always available mentor, capable of transmitting enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity. 

The figure of Paolo Pancheri remains emblematic for understanding the transformation of Italian psychiatry in the final decades of the twentieth century. He was able to combine fidelity to the classical psychopathological tradition with openness to new horizons in psychometrics, psychopharmacology, and research. His contribution continues to live no not only through the institutions he founded but also through the work of his students and the scientific community he continues to inspire. To remember Paolo Pancheri, therefore, means to acknowledge the enduring strength of a vision that united science and humanism, method and clinical sensitivity, the past and future of psychiatry.