Bio:

Dr. 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

Recent Publications:

Cyranowski, J, Shear, MK, Rucci, P, Fagiolini, A, Frank, E, Grochocinski, V, Kupfer, D, Banti, D, Armani, A, Cassano, G Adult Separation Anxiety: Psychometric Properties of a New Structured Clinical Interview, Journal of Psychiatric Research, 36:77-86, 2002

Hohmann, A, Shear, MK, Community-Based Intervention Research: Coping with the Noise of Real Life in Study Design, American Journal of Psychiatry, 159(2): 201-207, Feb 2002

Mundt, J, Marks, I, Shear, MK, Griest, J, The Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS): A Simple Accurate Measure of impairment in Functioning, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 180:461-464, 2002

Lenze, E, Mulsant, B, Shear, MK, Houck, P, Reynolds III, C Anxiety Symptoms in Elderly Patients with Depression: What is the Best Approach to Treatment? Drugs and Aging, 19 (10): 753-60, 2002

Shear, MK, Cassano, GB, Frank, E, Ruci, P, Rotondo, A, Fagiolini, A, The panic-agoraphobic spectrum: development, description and clinical significance. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 25: 739-756, 2002

Harkness, K, Shear, MK, Frank, E, Silberman, R Traumatic Grief Treatment: Case Histories of Four Patients, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 63: 1113-1120, 2002

Houck, P, Spiegel, D, Shear, MK, Rucci, P, Reliability of the Self-report Version of the Panic Disorder Severity Scale , Depression & Anxiety 15: 183-185, 2002

Shear, MK Building A Model of PTSD, American Journal of Psychiatry 159: 10, 2002

Swartz, H, Shear, MK, Frank, E, Cherry, C, Scholle, S, Kupfer, D, Supermarket Psychotherapy: A Pilot Study of Community Mental Health Care for Depression in a Supermarket Setting, Psychiatric Services, 53:1132-1137, 2002

Shear, MK and Caroff, K , Traumatic Loss and The Syndrome of Complicated Grief, PTSD Research Quarterly, 13:1-8, 2002

Rollman, BL, Shear, MK, Depression and Medical Co-morbidity: Red Flags for Current Suicidal Ideation in Primary Care, Psychosomatic Medicine, 65 506-507, July/August, 2003

Milrod, B, Leon, AC, Shear, MK, Can interpersonal loss precipitate panic disorder? American Journal of Psychiatry 161(4): 758-579, 2004

Swartz, H, Frank, E, Shear, MK, Fleming, M, Cherry, C A pilot study of brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depressed Women, Psychiatric Services 55(4): 448-450, 2004

Swartz, H, Shear, MK, Greeno, C, Sales, E, Sullivan, E, Ludewig, D Maternal Depression and Anxiety Among Mothers Bringing Their Children to a Pediatric Mental Health Clinic, Psychiatric Services 55(4):448-50 2004

Germain, A, Buysse, D, Shear, MK, Fayyad, R, Austin, C, Clinical correlates of poor sleep quality in posttraumatic stress disorder, J Traum Stress 17:477-484 2004

Melhem, NM, Shear, MK, Reynolds, CF, Day, NL, Day, R, Brent, D, Traumatic Grief Among Adolescents Exposed to their Peer’s Suicide, American Journal of Psychiatry 161:1411-6 2004

Shear K Integrating pharmacologic and psychosocial strategies to effectively manage generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder. CNS Spectr. 2004 Jun;9(6 Suppl 13):9-14.

Monkul, ES, Tural, U, Onur, E, Fidaner, H, Alkin, T, Shear, MK, Panic Disorder Severity Scale: Reliability and Validity of the Turkish Version, Depression and Anxiety, 20:8-16 2004

Sales, E, Greeno, C, Shear MK, Anderson, C, Maternal caregiving strain as a mediator in the relationship between child and mother mental health problems. Social Work Research 28(4): 211-223, 2004

Germain, A, Hall, M, Krakow, B, Shear, MK, Buysse, DJ. A brief sleep scale for posttraumatic stress disorder: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Addendum for PTSD. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 19(2): 233-244, 2005

Shear K Frank E Houck P, Reynolds CF Treatment of Complicated Grief: A Randomized Controlled Trial, JAMA 293 (21): 2601-2608 2005

Cyranowski, JM, Frank, E, Shear, MK, Swartz, H, Fagiolini, A, Scott, J, Kupfer, DJ, Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression with Panic Spectrum Symptoms (IPT-PS): A Pilot Study. Depression and Anxiety 21(3): 140-142, 2005

Frank E, Shear MK, Rucci P, Banti S, Mauri M, Maser JD, Kupfer DJ, Miniati M, Fagiolini A, Cassano GB, Cross-cultural validity of the Structured Clinical Interview for Panic-Agoraphobic Spectrum. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 40(4): 283-290, 2005

Simon NM, Pollack MH, Fischmann BA, Perlman CA, Muriel A, Moore CW, Nierenberg AA, Shear K, Complicated Grief and its Correlates in Patients with Bipolar Disorder, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 66: 1105-1110, 2005

Germain A, Shear MK, Caroff K, Sleep Quality in Complicated Grief, Journal of Traumatic Stress 18(4): 343-346, 2005

Shear MK, Jin R, Ruscio AM, Walters EE, Kessler RC: Prevalence and Correlates of Child and Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). American Journal of Psychiatry (in press)

Shear MK, Shair H, Attachment, Loss and Complicated Grief Dev Psychobiology (in press; to be published 11/05)

Rollman, BL, Belnap, BH, Matzumdar, S, Zhu, F, Schulbert, HC, Shear, MK, The impact of a collaborative care intervention for panic and generalized anxiety disorder (PD/GAD) on anxiety symptomatology, health-related quality of life, and work outcomes at 12-month follow-up, Arch of Gen Psych, (in press; to be published 12/05)

Monk, TH, Houck, PM, Shear, MK, The Daily Life of Traumatic Grief Patients – What Gets Missed, What Gets Added? Death Studies, (accepted for publication)

Szanto K, Shear K, Houck P, Reynolds CF, Frank E, Caroff K Silowash R Indirect self-destructive behavior and overt suicidality in patients with traumatic grief, J of Clinical Psychiatry (in press)

Shear K, Belnap BH, Mazumdar S, Houck P, Rollman BL, The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Severity Scale (GADSS), Depression and Anxiety (accepted for publication)

Zuckoff A, Shear MK, Frank E, Daley DC, Seligman K, Silowash R, Treating complicated grief and substance use disorders: A Pilot Study, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (submitted; in revision)

Last updated March 28, 2008.