Psychiatrist Accused of Seducing Patient Who Killed Self Resigns

A psychiatrist accused of seducing a patient who later committed suicide submitted a resignation letter Friday, and this time officials said it was acceptable.

The resignation by Dr. Margaret Bean-Bayog was “permanent and unconditional,” unlike the one offered Thursday that had strings attached, said Paul Gitlin, vice chairman of the state Board of Registration in Medicine.

The disciplinary action against Bean-Bayog was over, and a state hearing scheduled for Monday would be canceled, said Michelle Haynes, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the board of registration.

Bean-Bayog can continue work as a psychotherapist but cannot prescribe medicine anywhere in the United States, Haynes said.

Bean-Bayog is accused of misconduct in the treatment of Paul Lozano, 28, a Harvard Medical School student who died last year after injecting himself about 75 times with cocaine. She has denied all allegations of impropriety.

Bean-Bayog, 49, a Harvard faculty member and authority on substance abuse, said in affidavits that Lozano was so mentally ill that many other doctors wouldn’t treat him. The man was suicidal, abused alcohol and drugs, told lies and harbored violent, even homicidal, thoughts, she said. She treated Lozano from 1986 to 1990.

His family, which has sued Bean-Bayog, said Lozano was a promising medical student destroyed by a psychiatrist who forced him to act like her baby, had sex with him and left him so depressed he killed himself.

The board has officially accused Bean-Bayog of providing psychiatric treatment that didn’t conform to medical standards.

On Thursday, Bean-Bayog agreed to give up her medical license to avoid a public hearing. But the board refused to accept her resignation, initially planning to go forward with the hearing.

Unlike the four-page letter Bean-Bayog submitted Thursday, the resignation she signed Friday did not contain any comments professing her innocence or blasting the state review process. It simply said: “I desire to resign my license to practice medicine,” and it set an effective date of Nov. 10 to give her patients time to find other doctors.