Bio:

Dr. Katherine Shear graduated with honors from the University of Chicago and attended Tufts University Medical School. After completing residencies in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry, and a research fellowship in psychosomatic medicine, she joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at Cornell University Medical College. During her tenure at Payne Whitney Clinic she established the Department’s first clinical research program in Anxiety Disorders. This mulitdisciplinary group served as an important training site for pre and post-doctoral students, fellows and faculty, and established strong collaborative links, both within Cornell and at other institutions. Dr. Shear’s well funded research group obtained grants from NIMH, private foundations and pharmaceutical companies. Their work made a major contribution in the area of Panic Disorder, including theoretical and practice-based publications.

In 1992 Dr. Shear moved to the University of Pittsburgh where she served as Professor of Psychiatry until January, 2006. She continued to conduct her own NIMH funded treatment studies and successfully mentored others in the development and implementation of funded research in anxiety disorders, depression, and grief. While in Pittsburgh, Dr. Shear obtained an NIMH infrastructure grant for clinical services research targeting women with mood and anxiety disorders. This grant supported a series of innovative pilot projects initiated by more than a dozen different investigators, including trainees and faculty from a range of disciplines. Projects were performed at sites that served low income minorities, in rural communities, in primary care medical facilities and in community agencies serving women victims of abuse.

In addition to a major focus on treatment studies, Dr. Shear has engaged in a line of investigation related to development and testing of assessment instruments.Among the instruments that resulted from this work are the widely used Panic Disorder Severity Scale, as well as a newer Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale, a structured version of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Anxiety, an instrument to assess adult separation anxiety disorder and several new grief assessment measures. She has served on the scientific advisory board of the Italy-based Spectrum Project (www.spectrum-project.org)

Most recently, she has worked in the area of bereavement and grief. She developed and tested a novel treatment for the newly identified condition of complicated grief. This work culminated in the publication in June 2005 of the first randomized controlled treatment study for complicated grief.

Research Interests:

• Psychotherapy research
• Anxiety disorders
• Adult separation anxiety disorder
• Bereavement and grief
• Women's mental health
  

Current Projects:

• Long term strategies in the treatment of panic disorder
• Complicated grief treatment: a randomized controlled trial
• Pharmacotherapy of complicated grief
• Pharmacotherapy of bereavement-related depression
• Clinical and spiritual grief: an integrated model

Select Publications:

Journal Articles
Mancini, A. D., Robinaugh, A. D., Shear, K., & Bonanno, G. A. (2009). Does attachment avoidance help people cope with loss? the moderating effects of relationship quality. Journal of Clinical Psychology.

Zisook, S., & Shear, K. (2009). Grief and bereavement: what psychiatrists need to know. World Psychiatry, 8(2), 67-74.

Porensky, E.K., et al. (2009). The burden of late-life generalized anxiety disorder: effects on disability, health-related quality of life, and healthcare utilization. Americal Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 17(6), 473-82.

Lenze, E. J., Rollman, B. L., Shear, K., Dew, M. A., Pollock, B. G., Ciliberti, C., et al. (2009). Escitalopram for older adults with generalized anxiety disorder: a randomized controlled trial. Jama, 301(3), 295-303.

Aaronson, C.J., Shear, K., Goetz, R.R., Allen, L.B., et. al. (2008). Predictors and time course of response among panic disorder patients treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 69(3): 418-24.

Book Chapters
Zisook S., Irwin, S. & Shear K. (in press). Understanding and Managing Adult Bereavement in Palliative Care. In H.M. Chochinov and W. Breitbart (eds.), Handbook of Psychiatry in Palliative Care. 2nd Ed.  Oxford University Press.

Busch, F.N., Milrod, B.L., & Shear, K. (in press). Psychodynamic Concepts of Anxiety. In D. Stein, E. Hollander, B.O. Rothbaum (eds.) Textbook of Anxiety Disorders.  American Psychiatric Publishing.

Last updated August 24, 2009.