WASHINGTON DC: 3 MAY 2008: At least three psychiatrists addressing the 161st annual convention of the American Psychiatric Association that started today have been disciplined by medical boards for sexual abuse of patients. The APA says its focus this year is to strengthen the interaction between therapist and “patient care,” but the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog, says the APA should be doing more to oust those members found guilty of patient sexual abuse. Instead, it is embracing them at its convention.

Today, Dr. Thomas Brod presented a course, “EEG Neurofeedback in Psychiatry: Clinical Applications.” In January 1995, the California Medical Board placed Brod on two years probation for repeated negligent acts. Medical Board documents obtained by CCHR reveal Brod treated a female patient with biofeedback for a chronic urinary retention problem and during subsequent psychotherapy attempted to initiate a romantic relationship with the woman, hugging and kissing during therapy sessions. When the patient received a million dollar inheritance, Brod and his wife accompanied her to Switzerland, stayed in the same hotel, where he convinced her to have sex with him because “it would be good for her therapy.” The patient relented and had sex with Brod while his wife was asleep in another room.

Several years later when the patient wanted to end their relationship, Brod had her committed to a psychiatric facility under the falsehood that she had tried to kill both she and himself.

On May 5, 2008, psychiatrist Douglas Geenens is presenting a symposium on the use of neuroleptic drugs in professional athletes. In 2004, the Kansas Board of Healing Arts suspended Dr. Geenens’ license for six months (staying all but one week) because of his sexual relationship with a former patient, who was the wife of a colleague. He was publicly censured by a Board “consent order,” which also required him to attend a course on “maintaining proper boundaries” with patients. The Board has since opened another investigation on Geenens and on April 27, indicated it was delaying an ethics ruling for six months, while it reviews other more recently filed complaints against him. The Missouri Board of Registration in the Healing Arts also investigated Geenens and in October 2007, allowed him to “retire” his license when it came up for renewal in lieu of disciplinary action. He continues to see patients privately and remains on the payroll of pharmaceutical company Pfizer, the manufacturer of Zoloft.

On May 7, Dr. Jack Gorman, former president and psychiatrist-in-chief of Harvard University’s McLean Hospital and former director of Mental Health Clinical Research Center at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, is giving a lecture under the convention section titled, “Managing Behavior in Patients and Psychiatrists.” On September 27, 2007, the New York State Board for Professional Medical Conduct reported Gorman was found guilty of negligence on more than one occasion for engaging in “inappropriate sexual contact with a patient.” A month later he also surrendered his right to practice medicine in Massachusetts, following a state investigation into suspected sexual abuses at McLean Hospital.

Gorman effectively resigned from McLean following a threat of lawsuit by the New York patient with whom he’d had the sexual contact. In 1999, he also resigned as Deputy Director of New York's Psychiatric Institute (NYPSI) following the New York Post’s exposure of his undisclosed conflicts of interests with drug companies. Between April 1, 1997 and March 31, 1998 Gorman had received over $140,000 from pharmaceutical companies that he had failed to disclose to the Institute. During that time, Gorman received speaking fees, travel, board memberships and consulting deals from 8 drug companies, including Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, Solvay, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Eli Lilly, Wyeth-Ayerst and SmithKline Beecham that were sponsoring studies conducted on state time at the NYPSI. This outside income more than doubled his annual state salary of $115,378.

CCHR has a website psychcrime.org that is dedicated to exposing patient abuse and fraud in the mental health system as a public warning. In the past five years alone, 262 psychiatrists have been criminally convicted or had their licenses to practice suspended or revoked. Of these, CCHR was able to confirm that 148 were APA members, although it was limited only to APA Membership lists from 1998 and 1994. The 72 convictions were for sexual exploitation of patients, possession of child pornography, controlled substance/prescribing violations, perjury, insurance fraud and one relation to a patient death.

CCHR was established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry emeritus SUNY, Syracuse.