Psychiatrist Sohail Punjwani's pending drunk driving charge

June 1, 2011

On July 18, 2010, Florida psychiatrist Sohail Punjwani was arrested in Miami Beach for driving under the influence and cocaine possession. 

The following month, he entered into a pretrial diversion program and will not be prosecuted for the cocaine charges if he completes the program. 

The DUI charge is still pending in Miami-Dade County court. 

Punjwani first came to public attention when the Miami Herald revealed he has prescribed several psychiatric drugs—some of which were linked to an increased risk of suicide among children—to seven-year-old Gabriel Myer, the Florida foster child who hanged himself on April 16, 2009. 

A report on the case by the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit, concluded that “the medications that were prescribed for Gabriel may have contributed to his actions directly prior to and during his accidental death.” 

Punjwani, the report stated, “has already been sanctioned for over-prescribing medications to patients, and, for the age-inappropriate prescription of medications to Gabriel Myers.”

Source: Carol Marbin Miller, "Boy's county psychiatrist has other issues," Miami Herald, April 23, 2011.