Psychiatrist Peter C. Gleason sentenced for federal crime, reprimanded for patient recordkeeping failures

March 29, 2010

On March 26, 2010, the Medical Board of California reprimanded psychiatrist Peter C. Gleason for unprofessional conduct.

According to Board’s document, this reprimand was the result of “discipline, restriction, or limitation imposed by another state.”

Specifically, in July 2008, Gleason was reprimanded by the Maryland State Board of Physicians, which found that Gleason “regularly and over a long period of time, prescribed medications for a patient without noting either their side-effects or the patient responses to the medications.  He kept scant notes of his treatment of the patient, and his records failed to reflect the dosage, strength or frequency of the powerful medications he prescribed.”

The Maryland Board concluded that [Gleason] “has lost touch with the importance of maintaining adequate medical documentation.”  In addition to the reprimand, the Maryland Board placed his license on probation for a minimum of six months, and required him to successfully complete comprehensive courses in medical records and in psychopharmacology for child and adolescent patients.

Gleason was additionally convicted in August 2008 in New York for the federal misdemeanor of “misbranding” a drug, in that he “did knowingly and intentionally introduce into interstate commerce…Xyrem (a central nervous system drug approved to treat narcolepsy and daytime sleepiness), that was misbranded within the meaning of 21 U.S.C. § 352 (f), in that [he] was marketing Xyrem for medical indications that were not approved by the FDA when [he]…well knew and believed, Xyrem’s labeling lack adequate directions for such uses and adequate warnings against such uses where such uses could be dangerous to the user’s health.”

Gleason was paid by the drug’s maker to appear at speaking engagements to promote the drug for the treatment of chronic fatigue, weight loss and insomnia—indications for which it is not FDA-approved.  He was sentenced February 22, 2010 to one year of probation.

Source: Stipulated Settlement and Disciplinary Order in the Matter of the Accusation Against Peter Charles Gleason, M.D., Physician and Surgeon Certificate No. G87635, Case No. 16-2008-192888, Medical Board of California, March 26, 2010; Superceding Misdemeanor Information, United States of America against Peter Gleason, Case No. 1:06-cr-00229-ENV, United States District Court Eastern District of New York, filed August 8, 2008; Final Decision and Order in the Matter of Peter D. Gleason (sic), M.D., License No. D24640, Before the Maryland State Board of Physicians, Case Number 2005-0922 and Judgment in a Criminal Case, United States of America v. Peter Gleason, Case Number 06cr229(s-2)-01 (ENV), USM Number 74054-053, United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, filed February 23, 2010.