Another Former Patient Files Lawsuit Against Psychiatrist Keith Ablow Alleging Sexual Violations

March 18, 2022

A New Hampshire woman who says she was treated by Dr. Keith Ablow for nearly a decade has now filed a malpractice lawsuit against the former Newburyport psychiatrist.

The Londonderry, New Hampshire, resident alleges that during the course of her treatment by Ablow, he engaged in numerous boundary violations, including those of a sexual nature.

She also alleges that after his medical license was suspended, Ablow asked her to become a pastor in a church he wanted to start.

Ablow, 60, who has offices at 36 Water St. in Newburyport, was sued by four women in 2018 and 2019. All four women alleged boundary violations by Ablow, and three of them said those violations included sexual conduct.

The suits were settled out of court for undisclosed sums.

Ablow’s license to practice psychiatry was summarily suspended by the Board of Registration in Medicine after the allegations came to light in 2019. Ablow continued offering services that did not require a license, including what were described on his own websites as pastoral counseling and life coaching.

According to his website and publicity releases online, he runs entities called “Pain-2-Power” and “The Ablow Center” out of his Water and Center street offices in Newburyport.

The new lawsuit, filed last Wednesday in Salem Superior Court, seeks more than $5 million in damages for negligence. It names both Ablow and his now-defunct corporation, Baystate Psychiatry P.C.

Efforts to reach the attorney for the woman were unsuccessful.

Ablow did not return a call seeking comment. A message left for the last known attorney to represent Ablow was also not returned.

The lawsuit alleges that Ablow engaged in “seductive, sexual and unprofessional behavior,” ranging from encouraging sexual conversations in treatment sessions to engaging in sexual acts “for Keith Ablow’s personal gratification.”

The woman said that while he was treating her he prescribed “large quantities” of medications, including the prescription opiates oxycodone, hydromorphone and tramadol, along with benzodiazepine and ketamine infusions.

Ablow, the woman said, encouraged her to engage in behaviors that made her emotionally dependent, encouraging her to email and text with him at all hours, and began “injecting himself” into her personal relationships, and where she lived and worked, and even offering treatment to her husband.

He also made inappropriate personal disclosures about his own life, including his wife and children and colleagues, and discussed personal issues of his own, including, the suit alleges, drug use and his own medical care.

Many of the allegations are similar to those in the lawsuits filed in 2019 on behalf of three of the four other former patients.

After earlier lawsuits became public and the subject of news coverage, the woman says Ablow asked her to post “positive” reviews on Yelp and Google. She was also asked to submit a letter of support to Ablow’s attorney, the complaint says.

The woman continued to see Ablow after his license was suspended, stopping sometime around February 2020.

The woman says in her complaint that Ablow also planned to start a church, and solicited her to become a pastor.

The woman says in her complaint she didn’t realize the extent to which she had been harmed until recently, after ending treatment with Ablow.

Ablow’s conduct, the suit says, caused the woman to be in denial and repression, unable to connect it to her stress, emotional distress, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In February 2020, DEA agents raided Ablow’s Newburyport office. No charges have been made public in connection with that raid.

Ablow, who grew up in Marblehead, was a well-known author and television personality for years. He testified for the defense in several high-profile trials, including those of North Shore dermatologist Dr. Richard Sharpe in 2001 and Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, who was known by his fictitious name “Clark Rockefeller,” in 2009.

He also became known for controversial commentaries on Fox News, which ended its relationship with him in 2017.

Source: Julie Manganis, “Another former patient files suit against Keith Ablow,” The Salem News, Mar. 9, 2022, URL: https://www.salemnews.com/news/another-former-patient-files-suit-against-keith-ablow/article_54f6ad96-9b0a-11ec-81e2-a3aaa976b48b.html