Nancy Downs

Title(s)Recall Hcomp, Psychiatry
SchoolVc-health Sciences-schools
Address9500 Gilman Drive #
La Jolla CA 92093
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    Collapse Biography 
    Collapse Education and Training
    UC San DiegoChief Resident Outpatient Psychiatry1990Psychiatry
    UC San DiegoResidency1988Psychiatry
    Mercy Medical CenterMedical Internship with Honors1986Primary Care
    UC San DiegoMD with Honors1985School of Medicine
    Stanford UniversityA.B. with Distinction1980Human Biology
    Collapse Awards and Honors
    Private Donor2019  - 2022Edelman Family Foundation
    American Psychiatric Association2018Distinguished Fellow
    Private Donor2015  - 2020Joseph E. Edelman College Mental Health Fund
    American Psychiatric Association2013Fellow
    UC San Diego2013Ten Year Service Award
    Peter F. Drucker1997 Nonprofit Innovation
    Dept of Psychiatry, UCSD1990Chairman's Research Prize
    UC San Diego House-staff1988Finalist, Teaching Award
    Psychiatry Residency In-service Training Exam1989Top One Percentile
    Medical class, preclinical courses1983Top Ten Percentile
    National Institutes of Health1981Pre-doctoral training grant
    Stanford University1980Graduated w/ Distinction (top 10%)

    Collapse Overview 
    Collapse Overview
    Dr. Nancy Swerdlow Downs was born in Lawrence, Kansas and raised throughout the United States. She is an H.S. Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, recalled to active duty, and previous Director of the College Mental Health Program (CMHP) for UC San Diego Health. Her clinical and academic work focuses on integrative treatments for depression and anxiety in primary care, and novel interventions for suicide prevention, particularly in community and college/university settings.

    Previously, as the Director for the CMHP, Dr. Downs and her team provided consultation-liaison services to staff and faculty, and timely access to cost-effective mental health care for approximately 43,000 UC San Diego undergraduate and graduate students. She is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a former member of the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) College Mental Health Workgroup and past Chair of the UC Office of the President Lead Psychiatrist Task Force. Dr. Downs serves an important role as an educator with psychiatry residents and as a mentor to early career faculty within the Department. With over 20 years of paid, full-time-equivalent academic experience, spanning 35 years, Dr. Downs continues to have a passion for working with patients, educating trainees, harnessing technology, contributing to the academic literature, and creating innovative, data-based programs, which enhance our community.

    Dr. Downs’ academic creative work centers around developing, funding and executing inaugural clinical and teaching programs which include: 1) the UCSD Psychiatry Internship Program including multidisciplinary sites in internal medicine and neurology (designed by Dr. Downs in 1994); 2) the UCSD Combined Family Medicine and Psychiatry Residency Program, based at St. Vincent De Paul Village (co-developed by Dr. Downs in 1994, for which she shared the 1997 Peter F. Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation); 3) the UCSD College Mental Health Program (developed by Dr. Downs in 2014) and Psychiatry Services on-campus (2010-2015), integrated for both the Counseling and Student Health Centers and capitalizing on EMR technology to track at-risk students and assist primary care providers with mental health algorithms; and 4) the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) program (for which she has been a leading member since 2010) that utilizes an anonymous web-based screening assessment tool to identify and treat medical professionals and pre-professionals at risk for depression and suicidal behaviors.

    Dr. Downs’ educational mentorship activities have included extensive teaching and coursework and the individual supervision of over 100 trainees.

    Collapse ORNG Applications 
    Collapse Featured Publications

    Collapse Bibliographic 
    Collapse Publications
    Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Researchers can login to make corrections and additions, or contact us for help. to make corrections and additions.
    Newest   |   Oldest   |   Most Cited   |   Most Discussed   |   Timeline   |   Field Summary   |   Plain Text
    Altmetrics Details PMC Citations indicate the number of times the publication was cited by articles in PubMed Central, and the Altmetric score represents citations in news articles and social media. (Note that publications are often cited in additional ways that are not shown here.) Fields are based on how the National Library of Medicine (NLM) classifies the publication's journal and might not represent the specific topic of the publication. Translation tags are based on the publication type and the MeSH terms NLM assigns to the publication. Some publications (especially newer ones and publications not in PubMed) might not yet be assigned Field or Translation tags.) Click a Field or Translation tag to filter the publications.
    1. Learning from Health Care Counselors' Perspectives on Health Care Worker Distress: A Qualitative Analysis. HCA Healthc J Med. 2024; 5(3):285-296. Downs N, Davidson J, Haddad A, Zisook S. PMID: 39015588; PMCID: PMC11249175.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:
    2. The Association of Psychotherapy With Burnout, Depression, and Measures of Well-Being in Residents and Fellows: A Pilot Study. Acad Med. 2024 May 01. Zisook S, Doran N, Downs N, Shapiro D, Haddad A, Lee D, Newton I, Kawasaki J, Nestsiarovich A, Davidson J. PMID: 38691836.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    
    3. Healthcare provider distress before and since Covid-19. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2022 Nov-Dec; 79:180-182. Zisook S, Doran N, Downs N, Lee D, Nestsiarovich A, Davidson JE. PMID: 36064694; PMCID: PMC9429121.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    4. Relationship between burnout and Major Depressive Disorder in health professionals: A HEAR report. J Affect Disord. 2022 09 01; 312:259-267. Zisook S, Doran N, Mortali M, Hoffman L, Downs N, Davidson J, Fergerson B, Rubanovich CK, Shapiro D, Tai-Seale M, Iglewicz A, Nestsiarovich A, Moutier CY. PMID: 35760197.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    5. Comparison of Suicidal Ideation and Depressive Symptoms Between Medical and Pharmacy Students. Am J Pharm Educ. 2023 03; 87(2):ajpe8881. Lee KC, Huang R, Tal IR, Downs N, Zisook S. PMID: 35470169; PMCID: PMC10159499.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    6. Systematic tracking of mental health acute care visits: A model of care for college students. J Am Coll Health. 2023 04; 71(3):806-812. Galles E, Gannon J, Noniyeva Y, Schweikert J, Downs N. PMID: 33979268.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    7. Gender differences among medical students, house staff, and faculty physicians at high risk for suicide: A HEAR report. Depress Anxiety. 2019 10; 36(10):902-920. Pospos S, Tal I, Iglewicz A, Newton IG, Tai-Seale M, Downs N, Jong P, Lee D, Davidson JE, Lee SY, Rubanovich CK, Ho EV, Sanchez C, Zisook S. PMID: 31102314.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 8     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    8. Be True to Our Schools-Models of Care in College Mental Health. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2018 08 09; 20(9):72. Downs N, Galles E, Skehan B, Lipson SK. PMID: 30094519.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 9     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    9. Implementing a college mental health program - an overview of the first twelve months. J Am Coll Health. 2019 01; 67(1):27-31. Downs N, Alderman T, Bhakta S, Greenwood TA. PMID: 29601286; PMCID: PMC6336517.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    10. Web-Based Tools and Mobile Applications To Mitigate Burnout, Depression, and Suicidality Among Healthcare Students and Professionals: a Systematic Review. Acad Psychiatry. 2018 Feb; 42(1):109-120. Pospos S, Young IT, Downs N, Iglewicz A, Depp C, Chen JY, Newton I, Lee K, Light GA, Zisook S. PMID: 29256033; PMCID: PMC5796838.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 34     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    11. Treat and Teach Our Students Well: College Mental Health and Collaborative Campus Communities. Psychiatr Serv. 2016 09 01; 67(9):957-63. Downs NS, Alderman T, Schneiber K, Swerdlow NR. PMID: 27181737.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 4     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    12. Alcohol use in an academic medical school environment: A UC San Diego Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) Report. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2016 05; 28(2):85-94. Martinez S, Tal I, Norcross W, Newton IG, Downs N, Seay K, McGuire T, Kirby B, Chidley B, Tiamson-Kassab M, Lee D, Hadley A, Doran N, Jong P, Lee K, Moutier C, Norman M, Zisook S. PMID: 27285389.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 6     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    13. Suicidal Ideation Among Students and Physicians at a U.S. Medical School A Healer Education, Assessment and Referral (HEAR) Program Report. Omega Journal of Death and Dying. 2015. Sidney Zisook, Ilanit Young, Neal Doran, Nancy Downs, Allison Hadley, Brittany Kirby, Tara McGuire, Christine Moutier, William Norcross, Maria Tiamson-Kassab.
    14. Listening to depression and suicide risk in medical students: the Healer Education Assessment and Referral (HEAR) Program. Acad Psychiatry. 2014 Oct; 38(5):547-53. Downs N, Feng W, Kirby B, McGuire T, Moutier C, Norcross W, Norman M, Young I, Zisook S. PMID: 24705825.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 21     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    15. In response to "Details on suicide among US physicians: data from the National Violent Death Reporting System". Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2013 Jul-Aug; 35(4):448. McGuire T, Moutier C, Downs N, Zisook S. PMID: 23567072.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 1     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    16. College students and suicide risk: prevention and the role of academic psychiatry. Acad Psychiatry. 2012 Jan 01; 36(1):1-6. Zisook S, Downs N, Moutier C, Clayton P. PMID: 22362428.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    17. Kaplan HI, Sadock BJ (eds) Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry VII,. 2000. 4. Zisook S, Downs N. Death dying and bereavement. Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins Co, 2000, p. 1963- 1981.
    18. Diagnosis and treatment of depression in late life. J Clin Psychiatry. 1998; 59 Suppl 4:80-91. Zisook S, Downs NS. PMID: 9554325.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 2     Fields:    Translation:Humans
    19. Psychiatry's future. Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Sep; 154(9):1325-6. Downs NS, McCahill ME. PMID: 9286213.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions:    Fields:    Translation:Humans
    20. Biologically Informed Psychotherapy of Depression. 1996. Shuchter S, Downs N, Zisook S.
    21. The relationship of affective illness and personality disorder in psychiatric outpatients: a retrospective study. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry. 1992; (4):87-94. Downs NS, Zisook S, Swerdlow N. Annals Clin Psychiatry 1992, 4:87-94.
    22. Supersensitive endocrine response to physostigmine in dopamine-depleted rats: a model of depression? Biol Psychiatry. 1986 Jul; 21(8-9):775-86. Downs NS, Britton KT, Gibbs DM, Koob GF, Swerdlow NR. PMID: 3015269.
      View in: PubMed   Mentions: 3     Fields:    Translation:HumansAnimals
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