Stories by Sidney Zisook

Sidney Zisook, M.D., is director of the University of California, San Diego Residency Training Program, and a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at UCSD. He served as an advisor to the DSM-5's Mood Disorder Work Group. Dr. Zisook's research centers on mood as both a primary and secondary manifestation/disorder. Much of his research has been focused on the natural history, differentiation from depression and treatment of grief and bereavement. Currently, he is PI on a multi-site NIMH and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention research study assessing interventions to bereaved individuals with complicated grief and co-Chair of a 35-site VA Cooperative Study on Treatment Resistant Depression. He is on the Scientific Review Board of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), president of the San Diego Board for the AFSP, and PI of the John A. Majda, MD Memorial Fund dedicated to facilitating research on de-stigmatizing physician depression and prevention of physician suicide. He also is co-PI of the UCSD task force on physician depression and suicide, and advisor to several trainees on studies of depression and/or suicide prevention. Dr. Zisook's major clinical focus is treatment of adult patients with grief, mood and anxiety disorders. Using an integrated approach which combines various psychotherapeutic modalities with pharmacotherapy, Dr. Zisook provides consultation for patients with particularly chronic and refractory conditions, individuals with complicated bereavement reactions, and older persons with mood and/or anxiety disorders. Dr. Zisook received his Bachelor of Arts from the University of California at Berkeley and his medical degree from Stritch-Loyola, Chicago. He completed his residency in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and was a clinical fellow of Harvard Medical School.