BRIEF

COMMUNICATIONS

Characteristics BY SHELDON

of “Erotic” H.

KARDENER,

Practitioners

M.D.,

MARIELLE

FULLER,

Using the responses of460 physicians to a questionnaire survey regarding sexual contact with patients (1), the authors attempt to statistically differentiate two groups-erotic practitioners and nonerotic practitioners. Analysis ofdata suggests that thefreer a physician is with nonerotic contact with patients, the more statistically likely he is to engage in erotic contact.

A PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED report (I) presented the resuits of a survey undertaken to determine the attitudes and behaviors of male physicians in five specialties regarding erotic and nonerotic behaviors with their patients. The purpose of this paper is to report data derived from a comparison of responses of the 59 physicians who acknowledged sexual contact with their patients and the 401 physicians who specifically denied any such contact. The full details of the overall study (I) and the philosophical and psychodynamic considerations of physicians engaging in sexual relationships with their patients (2) have already been published. The analysis of the data comparing the two groupserotic practitioners (EP) and nonerotic practitioners (NEP)-will be presented in terms ofobjective numerical responses and subjective ‘fill-in’ statements. ‘

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