Jennifer I. Downey, MD

Specialties:
Psychiatry

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Overview
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Credentials & Experience
Research

Overview

Jennifer Downey is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York and a member of the faculty of the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center.
Following graduation from medical school and residency in psychiatry at Columbia, she held a 5-year Research Scientist Development Award from NIMH and attended the Columbia Psychoanalytic Center, graduating with a certificate in Psychoanalysis.
Dr. Downey has been a researcher, educator and clinical scholar in the areas of women's health, psychoanalysis and sexuality. Her early research concerned female sex hormones, and she wrote a series of influential papers and chapters on the reproductive cycle and psychiatric conditions in women. This work discussed not only infertility but adolescent sexuality, premenstrual affective symptoms, the treatment of psychiatric disorders during pregnancy and post-partum, and emotional effects of cancers of the reproductive tract in women.
In the early 1990's Dr. Downey began a collaboration with Dr. Richard C. Friedman. Since then the two have published many articles and books together. An article written at the invitation of the editors of the NEJM was widely influential in changing attitudes about homosexuality in the medical profession.
Their most recent book was published by Columbia University Press in 2002. This book, which achieved widespread acclaim, was reissued in paperback as Sexual Orientation and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice (2008).
In 2008 Dr. Downey was chosen as the first Teichner Scholar by the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry (AAPDP) and the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training (AADPRT). She served as a visiting scholar of psychodynamic education at the University of Kentucky.
Jennifer Downey lives and works in New York City where she maintains a practice in psychodynamic psychiatry and teaches in the Psychiatric Residency and Psychoanalytic Center at Columbia.

Areas of Expertise / Conditions Treated

Depression
Eating Disorder
Eating Disorders
Family Counseling
Gay/Lesbian Counseling
Infertility Counseling
Menopause
Postpartum Disorders
Pregnancy Losses
Premenstrual Syndrome
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Sexual Dysfunction
Sexual Dysfunctions
Stress Management

Academic Appointments

Clinical Professor

Hospital Affiliations

NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Gender

Female

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Phone Appointments

New and Existing Patients: (212) 534-2515

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Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Residency: New York State Psychiatric Institute

Board Certifications

Psychiatry

Research

Areas of interest include hormones, the brain and sexuality; mental health effects of physical illness.
Doing current research into the relationship between psychiatric disorders and sexuality.

Research Interests

Effects of Physical Illness on Mental Health
Sexuality and Sexual Orientation
Women's Mental Health

Selected Publications

Friedman RC, Downey JI: Sexual Orientation and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: Sexual Science and Clinical Practice, Columbia University Press, New York, NY, United States, 2008
Friedman RC,Downey JI: Sexual psychodynamics: I: The origins of male aggression. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 2007;35(1): 97-115
Friedman RC, Downey JI: Sexual differentiation of behavior: The foundation of a developmental model of psychosexuality. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 2008;56: 147-175
Downey JI, Friedman RC: Homosexuality: Psychotherapeutic Issues. British Journal of Psychotherapy 2008;24(4): 429-468
Downey JI: What do women want?: Psychodynamics of women's sexuality in 2008. Journal of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis and Dynamic Psychiatry 2009;37(2): 253-268


For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov