Most people experience in their lifetime the death of someone close—or another event that can lead to some form of grief. However, a subset of individuals struggle beyond normal grief and progress to a more debilitating and persistent condition known as “complicated grief.” And like complicated grief, certain anxiety disorders also are common, impairing and often under recognized or insufficiently treated.
ٺƵ is now taking a major step forward to advance understanding and treatment of these conditions—and has recruited an internationally recognized and highly acclaimed expert to direct these efforts.
Naomi M. Simon, MD, who has led seminal research in this field during a distinguished 20-year career at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), will join ٺƵ’s in July 2017 to oversee its new Anxiety and Complicated Grief Program. Under her stewardship, and building on her strengths as a program developer and clinical innovator, the new service will focus on investigating and treating panic disorder, social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and complicated grief.
Most recently, Simon has served as Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and at MGH as director of its Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders and director of its Complicated Grief Program.
“As a senior member of our team and leader of this exciting new program, Dr. Simon immediately catapults ٺƵ to the forefront in the investigation and treatment of these conditions,” says Charles R. Marmar, MD, the Lucius N. Littauer Professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at ٺƵ. “Complicated grief is a particularly challenging illness that we are just beginning to understand and effectively manage and treat. Her proven expertise in both anxiety and complicated grief will help us care for patients in new ways at a time when the need has never been greater.”
Simon also helped establish MGH’s Home Base Program, which features a novel clinical care model and training institute that addresses the unmet needs of post- 9/11 veterans and their families affected by deployment-related stress, anxiety, PTSD, and traumatic brain injury. In bringing this expertise to ٺƵ, she assuredly strengthens the breadth and scope of its Cohen Veterans Center and its Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic, which share a similar mission with Home Base. The Military Family Clinic is the original model of care and principal site under a nationwide network of similar-type programs known as the Cohen Veterans Network.
About Dr. Simon
An undergraduate alumna of Brown University, Simon earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School and her Master of Science degree in psychiatric epidemiology from Harvard School of Public Health. She completed a medical internship and residency at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital/New York Psychiatric Institute and fellowship training in consultation psychiatry at MGH.
A prolific publisher of more than 170 peer reviewed manuscripts and book chapters, and a co-editor of two books in her field, Simon’s work has been reported in top peer-reviewed medical and psychiatric journals including Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Biological Psychiatry, and American Journal of Psychiatry. In addition, she serves as associate editor for a leading journal in her field, Depression and Anxiety.
She currently serves as chair of the Scientific Council of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, and as a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and a scientific advisor to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Her research has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health, the United States Department of Defense, foundations, and the nation’s top pharmaceutical companies.
“It is a privilege to join such a prestigious organization and faculty,” says Simon. “I look forward to working with my new colleagues to advance the understanding and treatment of anxiety disorders and complicated grief, to help recruit others to our ranks, and to further the broad impact of the department on the wellbeing of our patients through scientific and clinical advances.”
Media Inquiries
Jim Mandler
Phone: 212-404-3525
jim.mandler@nyumc.org
