Department of Medicine

Cardiovascular Medicine Faculty

David S. Sheps, MD, MSPH, FACC Division of Cardiovascular Medicine Professor of Medicine Associate Chief, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine e-mail: shepsds@medicine.ufl.edu 1601 SW Archer Road, VAMC Room E342 Gainesville FL 32608 352 379-4159, 376-1611 ext 5051, fax 271-4537 Visit Dr. Sheps' Behavioral Cardiology Lab website

David S. Sheps received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina, completed his residency in the Department of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and completed a fellowship in cardiology at Yale University School of Medicine. He has an MSPH in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina. Dr. Sheps is Professor and Associate Chair in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine and is a staff cardiologist at the Gainesville VA Medical Center. He is Director of Nuclear Cardiology at the University of Florida. Effective January 2002, Dr. Sheps was recognized for his accomplishments in behavioral medicine by being appointed as Editor-in-Chief of the Psychosomatic Medicine Journal.

Dr. Sheps is a well-recognized expert in the field of the effects of psychological stress in patients with coronary artery disease and mental stress ischemia. He has focused on behavioral, clinical and epidemiologic manifestations of disease expression, particularly in coronary artery disease. He currently has two ongoing NIH grants: Mindful Based Stress Reduction and Myocardial Ischemia, focuses on treatment of patients with psychological stress induced ischemia to attempt to see if adverse prognosis of stress induced ischemia can be altered; Psychological Stress and Risk of Cardiac Events investigates a broad spectrum of coronary artery disease patients with both nuclear cardiac imaging and peripheral vascular analysis to more easily detect the large number currently at risk for adverse events.

Training:

Academic Interests:

Dr. Sheps’ current research interests are in the areas of chronic ischemic heart disease and the pathophysiology of pain perception, and the differences between exercise and psychological stress in patients with coronary artery disease. In addition, Dr. Sheps conducts research in cardiovascular epidemiology and has a Master’s of Science degree in epidemiology. Currently, Dr. Sheps’ research lab is located in the VA Medical Center where there is a gamma camera available solely dedicated to research projects. Current research projects include two NIH-funded studies dealing with different aspects of the effects of stress in patients with coronary artery disease. Areas of active research include the prognostic risk of psychological stress induced ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease, the role of cytokine elevation in response to stress, in addition to a major project looking at the effect of behavioral intervention on psychological stress induced ischemia. In addition, Dr. Sheps is the principal investigator for the Myocardial Ischemia and Migraine Study funded by Glaxo Pharmaceuticals, which is a multicenter ancillary study to the Women’s Health Initiative that is studying 3,300 post-menopausal females in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study. This epidemiologic study has provided a wealth of information relating to the prognostic risk of ST segment depression on Holter monitoring in these women, the effects of hormonal therapy on coronary artery events and its relationship to ischemia and other ongoing research studies. Dr. Sheps is Editor of Psychosomatic Medicine, a major journal which publishes clinical and research studies relating to the interaction between behavioral or psychological variables and disease. Dr. Sheps has a long history of training cardiology research fellows and currently has a full-time research fellow and a post-doctoral psychologist working in his laboratory.

Clinical Interests:

Nuclear cardiology, epidemiology

Representative Publications:

Smoller JW, Pollack MH, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Brunner R, Curb D, Torner J, Oberman A, Hendrix S, Hsia J, Sheps DS. Panic Attacks, Daily Life Ischemia and Chest Pain in Postmenopausal Women. Archives of Internal Medicine, Mar 2006, In Press.

Freedland KE, Babyak MA, McMahon RJ, Jennings JR, Golden RN, Sheps DS. Statistical Guidelines for Psychosomatic Medicine. 2005 Mar-Apr; 67(2):167.

Kim CK, McGorray SP, Bartholomew BA, Marsh M, Dicken T, Wassertheil-Smoller S, Curb JD, Oberman A, Hsia J, Gardin J, Wong ND, Barton B, McMahon RP, Sheps DS. Depressive Symptoms and Heart Rate Variability in Postmenopausal Women. Arch Intern Med 2005 June 13;165(11):1239-44.

Ramachandruni S, Fillingim R, McGorray S, Schmalfuss C, Cooper G, Schofield R, Sheps DS. Mental Stress Provokes Ischemia in Some Coronary Artery Disease Patients without Exercise/Adenosine Induced Ischemia. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. March 7, 2006; (47) 987-991

Sheps DS, McMahon RP, Becker L, Carney RM, Freedland KE, Cohen JD, Sheffield D, Goldberg AD, Ketterer MW, Pepine CJ, Raczynski JM, Light K, Krantz DS, Stone PH, Knatterud GL, Kaufmann PG. Mental Stress-Induced Ischemia and All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: Results from the Psychological Investigations of Myocardial Ischemia Study. Circulation. 2002;105:1780-1784.