Wall Street psychiatrist sees explosion of drugs, alcohol, depression

Publish date: 2024-08-04

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A Manhattan psychiatrist whose clientele includes Wall Street traders, investment bankers and corporate lawyers said there has been an explosion in the number of patients who seek treatment for drugs, alcohol, depression and other mental health issues.

Dr. Sam Glazer, who heads a therapy practice based on the Upper East Side, told the Wall Street Journal that he has witnessed the surge since the pandemic despite the previous stigma attached by finance professionals fearful of asking for time off because they don’t want their clients to get wind of any issues.

“I’ve seen a lot of people who are high-functioning in the upper levels of finance who are terrified of being exposed,” said 56-year-old Glazer.

“There’s a culture of paranoia. ‘Would you want someone to manage your money who’s an identified alcoholic?’” he added of his patients, who include traders, fund managers, investment bankers and corporate lawyers.

Glazer told the Journal that his practice scaled up exponentially during the pandemic, forcing him to hire four new therapists to keep up with demand caused by the high-stress nature of Wall Street.

Dr. Sam Glazer heads a therapy practice on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. He treats up to 200 patients at once, and they’re mostly investment bankers and corporate lawyers working on Wall Street. NY Langone Health

Firms located in the Financial District have long required employees to work brutal, 105-hour workweeks, which have been the catalyst for multiple tragedies over the years, including the shocking suicide of billionaire financier Thomas H. Lee in February.

Lee, known as the “envy of Wall Street,” was found in his office bathroom with a single gunshot wound to his head next to his Smith & Wesson revolver.

The 78-year-old philanthropist was discovered by a female assistant on the floor of the bathroom in his family office at the Fifth Avenue headquarters of his eponymous financial firm, police sources told The Post earlier this year.

Jeff Ditzell Psychiatry in the Financial District reported late last year that the center’s hallucinogenic IV drip was in high demand among stressed-out stock traders. REUTERS

To cope with depression, stress and burnout syndrome, other wealthy stock traders have reportedly flocked to a Manhattan-based ketamine therapy practice that doles out the hallucinogenic drug via IV drip in a lavish setting for $750 per session.

The Jeff Ditzell Psychiatry center in the Financial District legally doses patients with the drug — best known as a psychedelic party favor — Ditzell told The Post late last year.

“We see a lot of Wall Street traders,” Ditzell said, adding that 30% to 40% of his clients work in the financial industry. “You could say they’re coming in droves. It’s a high-stress job and these humans are performance-driven.”

Big banks have rolled out initiatives to address mental health in recent years, including JPMorgan, which introduced new initiatives when it launched a new unit with $250 million in funding geared toward health care.

Banks such as JPMorgan have addressed workers’ mental health issues in recent years by funding new health care initiatives. Christopher Sadowski

The unit, called Morgan Health, created a better model of employer-sponsored health care, according to the Journal, with a focus on improving care services for workers’ mental health.

In 2021, Bank of America announced that it committed $1.35 million to support multiple mental health initiatives in partnership with organizations One Mind, RADical Hope and the National Alliance of Mental Illness.

However, private equity firms and hedge funds that pride themselves on being even more competitive and offering higher salaries have been slower to make moves in support of their staffers’ mental health, the Journal reported.

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