North Carolina suspends psychiatrist for affair with patient

December 14, 2007

On December 14, 2007, the North Carolina Medical Board suspended indefinitely psychiatrist Kerry L. Balentine for unprofessional conduct. The Board’s document states that Dr. Balentine engaged in a romantic relationship with a patient not long after the death of the patient’s wife and continued to prescribe psychoactive and controlled substances to the patient without documenting or charting it in his medical record.¹