Nancy Donovan, MD

JAD profile

Affiliation(s): 

Brigham and Women's Hospital; Harvard Medical School

Areas of Interest: 

Neuropsychiatry of Alzheimer's disease

Biography & Research: 

Nancy J. Donovan, MD is Associate Psychiatrist in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She is a board certified Geriatric Psychiatrist who obtained her M.D. from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed clinical and research training at Stanford University Medical Center, Cambridge Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. Dr. Donovan is co-investigator in Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related, investigator-initiated longitudinal cohort studies such as the Harvard Aging Brain Study and clinical trials at the Center for Alzheimer Research and Treatment across Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. She attends as a geriatric psychiatrist in the Brigham Behavioral Neurology/Neuropsychiatry memory disorders group. Dr. Donovan’s research concerns the epidemiology of neuropsychiatric symptoms in preclinical and early symptomatic stages of Alzheimer’s disease and the relations of these symptoms to AD biomarkers such as cerebral amyloidosis and regional neurodegeneration. Her recent work has focused on apathy and depressive symptoms as potential early markers of AD pathophysiology in older adults at preclinical AD and mild cognitive impairment stages of AD. She is currently principal investigator of grants examining loneliness, social engagement and depression in relation to AD biomarkers and brain network function in aging and early AD.