From Yeast by White and Zainasheff, 2010, pg 114:
"Many people ask if they can crash the beer temperature, or should they lower it slowly? The concern comes over sending the yeast into a dormant state, thereby preventing them from continuing the uptake of compounds during the long cold-conditioning period. The reality is that very little happens once you take the yeast below 40*F (4*C). If you want the yeast to be active and to carry on reduction of fermentation by-products, it happens much faster at higher temperatures. As far as yeast activity goes, crashing the temperature or lowering it slowly makes little flavor difference if you are dropping the beer below 40*F (4*C). However, very rapid reduction in temperature (less than 6 hours) at the end of fermentation can cause the yeast to excrete more ester compounds instead of retaining them. IN addition, if you plan to use the yeast for repitching, you should avoid very rapid temperature changes (up or down), as they can cause the yeast to express heat shock proteins."
This paragraph is under the heading of Lagering, and while the mentions of cold-conditioning period and such obviously skew this toward lager-style beers, the info is relevant for all yeast strains. Since it sounds like emjay has some insight into all this, I was curious his thoughts.
Again, I'm not going to stop my practice of crash cooling at the end of fermentation, but I do want to know if I'm choosing convenience over optimal yeast health.