Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Psychiatrist Paul J. Erickson Accused by Medical Board in Death of Patient

October 20, 2025

On April 22, 2025, the Medical Board of California filed an Accusation against Santa Barbara psychiatrist Paul J. Erickson, of the Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, for gross negligence in the death of a patient.  

The Board requested that a hearing be held on this matter and that, following the hearing, the Board issue a decision as to revocation or suspension of Erickson’s license.

On December 20, 2021, Erickson admitted a 40-year-old female patient to Cottage Hospital on an emergency basis.

The patient had been previously treated by another psychiatrist in the community for a number of years, who had been prescribing the antipsychotic drug clozapine to her at a dose of 500 mg at bedtime. 

Approximately two weeks prior to her admission to Cottage Hospital, the patient had been tapered off clozapine due to difficulty in obtaining the drug, and had been switched to a different antipsychotic, aripiprazole. The patient’s psychiatrist referred her to the emergency department at Cottage Hospital due to concerns about hallucinations and suicidal ideation while on aripiprazole.

After admitting her to Cottage Hospital, Erickson restarted the patient on clozapine 400 mg at bedtime.

Approximately one hour after her bedtime dose, the patient was found unresponsive in her room. She was resuscitated but continued to be unresponsive and supportive care was discontinued. She was pronounced deceased on December 21, 2021.

The standard of care for restarting clozapine after an interruption is set forth in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s guidelines. According to the FDA, if clozapine therapy has been interrupted for more than 48 hours, treatment should be resumed at the lowest dose of 12.5 mg and be titrated based on patient tolerability to minimize the risk of serious adverse effects.

During an interview with a Board representative on November 15, 2024, Erickson admitted he should have restarted the patient’s dose of clozapine at 12.5 mg.

Erickson committed an extreme departure from the standard of care when he restarted the patient’s clozapine at 400 mg instead of 12.5 mg.

Source: Accusation in the Matter of the Accusation against Paul Joseph Erickson, M.D., Physician's & Surgone's Certificate No. G 86595, Case No. 800-2023-095059, Medical Board of California, April 22, 2025.