This is in response to the article in the April 7 issue headed "Court to Hear Appeal of Controversial Verdict" concerning psychiatrist Myron Liptzin, M.D., and his former patient, Wendell Williamson. The article stated, "Liptzin’s retirement, about which he informed Williamson, coincided with the patient’s running up against the six-visit limit the health center imposes and the end of the school year."

Adequate preparation of a psychiatric patient for the absence (whether temporary or permanent) of the treating psychiatrist is a time-consuming necessity.

The more severely ill the patient, the more time is needed to prepare the patient for the absence. In this instance such preparation could easily consume all the time of six, or more, visits.

An expectation that psychiatrists can adequately care for severely mentally ill patients under artificial time constraints allotted by persons other than those experienced in treating these illnesses is unrealistic and courts further tragedies.

Joseph R. Cowen, M.D.

Baltimore, Md.