title: Therapist-patient sexual relations: results of a national survey in Israel.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies focusing on Patient-Therapist sexual relations have been carried out mainly in the U.S. This study comes to broadly explore this phenomenon in Israel.
  
  
  METHODS
  An indirect questionnaire was sent to all 1,817 psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers who are members of the Israeli Psychiatric Association, Psychologists Association and Psychotherapy Association, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  29% of the responding therapists reported that at least one of their patients had experienced sexual relations with the most recent, former therapist.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The design of our survey made it impossible for us to conduct a follow-up after termination of therapy and to differentiate intercourse from nonintercourse sexual exploitation.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Similar numbers of the gender of the exploiting therapist and exploited patients were obtained for both the indirect current Israeli study and previous U.S. studies. This may suggest that such parameters are influenced by common norms regarding the relationships between men and women of both societies, and from the psychotherapeutic dyadic situation.
authors.affiliation: The Program of Psychotherapy, School of Continuing Medical Education and Abarbanel Mental Health Center, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Israel. alexaviv@gmail.com
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Aviv
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Assaf
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shelef
authors.forename: Nili
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Speiser
authors.forename: Avner
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Elizur
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires