Patient Sues Boston Psychiatrist Sabrina Popp for Medical Malpractice; Failed to Inform That Prescription Could Cause Promiscuous Streak

November 8, 2022

BOSTON (Legal Newsline) - The psychiatrist sued by a patient who blamed prescription drugs on a promiscuous streak that included sex with 25 men during one summer is going through bankruptcy.

Dr. Sabrina Popp filed a Chapter 7 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts on Oct. 21, which suggests a stay of the lawsuit brought in Suffolk County Superior Court by a Jane Doe.

Doe sued Popp on July 1, 2021, for medical malpractice, negligence and failure to obtain informed consent.

According to the complaint, Doe, a 42-year-old woman at the time, became a patient of Popp's in 2015. In June of 2016, although on an antidepressant, Doe was still having depressive symptoms causing Popp to prescribe the drug pramipexole as an adjunct to her antidepressant, the suit says.

[Psychcrime note: Pramipexole, sold under the brand name Mirapex, is a drug prescribed to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Among its known side effects is “increased sexual urges, unusual urges to gamble, or other intense urges.”]

In November 2016, Popp increased the dose and Doe allegedly developed impulse control disorders causing Doe to: develop an overactive and compulsive sex drive; uncontrollably spend her money; fall asleep while driving; repeatedly dye her hair; compulsively knit; get two tattoos; experience overeating, weight gain, and forgetfulness; not meet with, or talk to, Dr. Popp for 13 months; and be hospitalized for severe depression.

Jane Doe alleges that it is due to Popp prescribing her the antidepressant supplement and not warning her about the side effects that she developed an impulse control disorder.

"During the summer of 2017, Plaintiff had sex with at least twenty-five (25) men. She oftentimes engaged in unprotected sex and had threesomes and foursomes," the lawsuit says.

"These encounters included having sex with a 19-year-old clerk at 7-Eleven; a random stranger she met at a bar in Lynn; a neighborhood drug dealer and ex-convict; and several men she found on Craigslist, including a Harvard College undergraduate student. She also had her first, and only, sexual experience with a woman during this time."

Doe seeks an amount deemed reasonable by the courts, attorney's fees and cost of suit. Doe is represented by David P. Angueira.

John O'Brien, “Psychiatrist's bankruptcy can halt case over patient's sex spree,” Legal Newsline, Nov. 4, 2022, URL: https://legalnewsline.com/stories/634552429-psychiatrist-s-bankruptcy-can-halt-case-over-patient-s-sex-spree