Dr. Matthew James Shear, MD

TL;DR - if I could give him 0 stars, I would. I don't even know where to start. I first started seeing Dr. Shear when I was 13, and he was the one to first diagnose me with anorexia. My family and I trusted him completely, and my parents followed his directions about how to treat me at home. I realized years later that I should have been in residential treatment from the first day I met him, but he allowed me to live at home - a completely inappropriate level of care. I might be able to forgive him if, after a month or two, he realized family based treatment wasn't working and had reccomended residential, or even PHP. But he had me stay at home for over a year. Words cannot express how damaging his decisions were to me and my family. The nature of an eating disorder is to be deceitful, and I kept getting worse, fighting with my parents as they tried their best to convince me to eat. But it wasn't their job to do that. I needed something more, but at the time we weren't even aware of… other treatment options. Not only was I restricting and purging (which is extremely dangerous), I was also self harming - all of which he knew about. His whole philosophy was that when the brain is malnourished you can't psychologically heal (which is true), but he then extrapolated this too far to mean that once you're weight restored you just magically are cured. Finally, after over a year, he sent me to inpatient at New York Presbyterian in White Plains. I was there for 10 days, mostly not eating. By day 8 I was completely miserable, and he just told me that I all I had to do was eat 100% of my meals for 48 hours and then I could leave. So, that's what I did (although I still managed to compensate in other ways). After that I just went back to the same at-home treatment - no residential, no PHP, nothing. It wasn't until a month later, when I attempted suicide, that my parents finally realized they were being deceived and put me in residential treatment at Clementine (which was a really great experience). It should not have had to take me trying to take my own life for him to realize his treatment approach wasn't working. To this day the trauma of my relationship with me still impacts me. I trusted him blindly, he was kind of a father figure. But people who care about you don't just stand by and watch while you starve yourself to death. He had the power to help me but he didn't, and I don't know if I will ever forgive him for that. If you are reading this review because you are considering him as a psychiatrist for yourself or your child -- please go somewhere else. FBT works very rarely, and usually for younger kids. If it's not working after a few months -- stop it. My reccommendation would be to find providers that utilize DBT, and believe in Health At Every Size.

Just as another review mentioned, despite the large number of patients Dr. Shear saw during my stay at NYP earlier this year, whenever it was my turn for "rounds" I always felt as if I had his utmost attention. His calm demeanor, intelligence, and care for every one of his patients had a very significant impact on me and the attitude I had with regard to the rest of my treatment.

I had Dr. Shear while being treated inpatient for an eating disorder. This man has a TON of patients he has to get through during rounds each day, yet when it was my turn, I felt like every ounce of attention was turned on me. He never showed even an ounce of stress even though I can't even imagine how difficult his job must be, working in a psychiatric hospital. Most doctors radiate their stress to everyone around them and are always trying to rush to the next patient. Dr. Shear never made me feel like he had no time for me. Definitely a bit of a know it all and will not deviate from standard "textbook" treatment methods, but he is still an incredible doctor.

Analytical and a bit dry. By the book doctor. Eating disorders are tricky - not high on the empathy scale but technically competent. Good follow up when patient was in treatment center - takes time to discuss program but again, 'sticks to the book'