More than one in ten psychiatrists has been stalked by patients or their associates, a survey suggests.

A report commissioned by the Royal College of Psychiatrists has found that 10.7 per cent of its members have been victims of stalking, while one in three had suffered harassment under legal and academic definitions of the term.

The survey used a strict definition of stalking as involving at least ten incidents over a two-week period. A greater proportion, 21.3 per cent, considered themselves to have been stalked according to their own standards of the term.

Even more members, approximately one third, had experienced problems that met the legal definition of harassment. These ranged from being followed home to direct threats and sexual and physical assault. One respondent spoke of receiving 76 telephone calls in one day; others wrote of having distressing items such as poison or semen sent to them and of attempts to interfere with their personal and financial affairs.

The stalkers were typically patients, or relatives of patients. In the majority of cases – 58 per cent – the problems went on for more than a year.

Up to 15 per cent of the general population have reported being stalked at one time or another but doctors and nurses experience a much higher risk.

Those who work in psychiatric care are particularly vulnerable but to date no large-scale study has specifically investigated psychiatrists’ experience of being stalked. The Royal College of Psychiatrists sent a questionnaire to 10,000 of its members. Based on the answers of 2,585 who responded, it concluded that 51 psychiatrists, nearly one a week, experienced a new case of stalking every year.

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