We are not advocating here the willy-nilly suing of a psychiatrist. In this increasingly litigious society there are already far too many frivolous lawsuits.

     However, if one suspects a psychiatrist has strayed from professional, legal or ethical standards of practice, one can report the individual to the state licensing board. There are also a number of websites with standard report forms to submit which list the specifics of the suspected transgression. CCHR and PsychSearch are two such reputable websites, and they immediately forward these reports to the appropriate authorities.

     One can, of course, also sue a psychiatrist for malpractice, if the facts warrant it.

     State laws do vary, but generally speaking, any time a medical professional’s actions no longer adhere to a standard of care used by the majority of responsible health care providers, a psychiatrist may be subject to a lawsuit as well as to discipline by a state medical board.

     Here are the two most common categories of legal transgressions by a psychiatrist which show a level of negligence that would support a malpractice suit.

     More practically, this list can also be used to assess for non-standard practices that should be reported to medical authorities, regardless if there are grounds for a successful lawsuit or not.

     General unethical conduct:

• • Having a sexual relationship with a patient
  • Verbal or physical abuse
  • Planting false memories in a patient.
  • Trading medical treatment for other goods or services
  • Failing to keep a patient’s medical information confidential
    Medical malpractice:Failure to adequately deliver and have a signed Informed Consent procedure
  • Not carrying out a thorough neurological evaluation when the condition calls for it
  • Failure to adequately test and monitor a patient’s response to medication
  • Any other significant p rescription medication errors
  • Misdiagnosing a patient’s condition
  • Failing to adequately monitor a patient, especially one with a risk of suicide
  • Improper record keeping, including falsification of medical records

     Should you sue a shrink?

     Yes…if there are obvious grounds for it. Apparently, there often are.

     The website PsychSearch offers a list of psychiatrists – state by state and country by country – who have either been disciplined by their medical boards or have been successfully prosecuted for medical and ethical “sins.”

     It is not a short list.

     In fact, according to a 2020 article in Clinical Psychiatry News, “Forty-one percent of U.S. psychiatrists have been sued for malpractice at least once.”

     That’s close to a fifty/fifty chance you have that the psychiatrist you see has a practice…or that he has a malpractice.