A Tustin psychiatrist with a long history of discipline by the Medical Board of California was recently slapped with a cease practice order.
Dr. David Sosin’s license to practice medicine in the state had been placed on five years probation with several conditions, one of which was that he have his practice monitored by a board-approved physician or surgeon.
Sosin’s monitor became unavailable, which kicked in a 60-day deadline for him to find a replacement. That didn’t happen, so as of 5 p.m. on Feb. 15, Sosin’s cease practice order went into effect, according to medical board documents.
He first received his California Physician’s and Surgeon’s Certificate in 1967, and his troubles with the medical board extend at least as far back to 1998, when he was investigated for excessive prescribing of Ritalin and Dexedrine to a female patient from 1984-’96.
The board revoked Sosin’s license to practice in 1999, but stayed the order for three years as long as he successfully completed a number of conditions. His license was restored in 2002, according to state records.
Linda K. Whitney, the medical board’s then-executive director, sent Sosin a Letter of Reprimand dated Feb. 24, 2012, that cited prescribing doses of stimulants to patients that exceeded Food and Drug Administration recommendations as well as failing to adequately monitor and provide informed consent on combined stimulants.
In 2016, Sosin’s license was placed on probation for five years due to “gross negligence” for: failing to stop treating a patient after learning he secretly put his prescribed Lexapro in his wife’s food; overprescribing Vyvanse and other drugs to other patients without proper examinations; prescribing multiple stimulants and medications simultaneously; and failing to send patients to other professionals for non-psychiatric conditions, and treating them for those conditions when they were beyond his scope.
Sosin was also accused of incompetence, repeated negligent acts, inadequate record keeping, general unprofessional conduct and, because he allowed a lay person to put Lexapro in a spouse’s food, aiding and abetting the unlicensed practice of medicine.
A new medical board accusation was lodged against Sosin’s license in 2018, when he allegedly prescribed a cocktail of stimulants and other medications to a patient he diagnosed with ADHD. She went on to tell Sosin she was also using marijuana and experiencing adverse effects of the prescription medications. She eventually complained to the medical board, whose investigators determined he should have ended his doctor-patient relationship with her.
Causes for discipline cited by the board included incompetence, gross negligence, excessive prescribing, repeated negligent acts, general unprofessional conduct, inadequate record keeping and prescribing without exam/indication.
Board documents indicate Sosin’s past discipline would be considered.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.
This action by the medical board is an injustice and an injury. Not only to Dr. Sosin, but also to his numerous patients for whom he was both their healer and friend.
I have been a patient of Dr. Sosin’s for several years and have never known him to be anything other than thoughtful, knowledgeable, and engaged. With his decades of direct experience in treating persons with ADHD, he had found that *some* patients responded better to higher-than-normal dosages of medication. However, over time, the guidelines for those meds were changed, lowering the maximum recommended dosage.
This left some of us in an uncomfortable position, because we were now being told, in effect, that we were no longer allowed to take our medications at the dosages that we and our doctors knew to be effective.
Please, recognize that this was not some casual, “Oh, let’s take more pills and get high!” situation. Nobody who is serious about taking efforts to improve their own ability to function effectively in the world wants to take too much medication. To do so is not only ineffective, but is also truly NOT fun.
If you think it sounds like fun, it’s likely because you are thinking of your own experiences or your preconceived notions about recreational stimulant drugs and then imagining that this situation is much the same thing. It is not. It’s not the same thing, at all. Among other things, for those of us who find that it effectively helps our ADHD, it doesn’t effect us in the same way that it would most folks. If you, the average person, took one of my pills, you’d likely be bouncing off the walls. But for me, it makes me calm and clear-headed.
So, when other doctors were saying, “I’m sorry, I know that dosage works for you, but it now exceeds the recommended limits, so you’re out of luck,” there were a very few other doctors, such as Dr. Sosin, that cared more about the effective treatment of their patients than they did about the “new guidelines.”
Those of us who found that, in the realm of medication, our ADHD happened to be most effectively managed with a higher dosage were very fortunate that there were at least a few doctors who not only had the experience to *know* what worked best, but also had the courage to *do* what was best for their patients. To me, those doctors took their Hippocratic Oath truly as a sworn oath, a promise, a duty… not a “guideline.”
At this point, whether or not the board’s ruling can be challenged and changed, please know that Dr. Sosin is a good, decent, caring individual. He deserves so much better than this tragic, ignominious dismissal.
Thank you for reading this.
– MF
This is BS. This article goes on to imply all these negative things, while failing to take into account or show any of the positives that Dr Sosin has shown to so many patients. He is a unique individual for sure, one who is willing to think outside the box and doesn’t make visits that sterile feeling that has overrun the medical community. One size doesn’t fit all for everyone, and that includes medical diagnosis. The worst part of this article, should one even call it that, is the gross picture you accompany along side it like he’s some kind of a monster. You do realize this is a man with a family, who worked hard for the medical license now in jeopardy, & is being judged now on a public scale with that as the image you post? He’s human, and has helped so people. This article is a joke and should be taken down.
This guy is a pill pusher. He ruined my Mom’s brain. She lays in bed all day, online shopping after being hopped up on uppers for years from this guy. At first I didnt know what was going on with my mom. She told me she was going to “therapy”. Little did I know she talks to this guy for 15 minutes once a month and dropped 400 bucks to get a prescription for Adderal. Now I deal with constant anger, paranoia, and anxiety that is impossible to manage. She’s shut out here entire family and wont seek help. Hope this guy rots in hell.
I was treated by Dr Sosin years ago for headaches.
Yes- lots of meds and side effects, BUT also good results with kindness and respect. Overall I liked him better than most psychiatrists I’ve know after 40 years as a mental health provider.