Dr. Samuel L Sharmat, MD

This guy is terrible. He completely destroyed our family after one of our family members had a stroke. By destroying her support system he caused her irreversible disability - he is a brain doctor and should have known better, this was negligence and malpractice. Additionally, he exacerbated emotional damage to the family. I have not yet sued, but I highly recommend no one vulnerable or in a delicate situation get involved with him.

Seemed like a nice enough man and was recommended to me by my current therapist at the time. However, I did not have a good experience for the following reasons: 1. Claimed to be newly in-network with my insurance at the time, but this only covers a 1 hr intake session. During the session, he made a few comments about how the 1 hr isn't as comprehensive as the 2 hour, and how he was 'limited' with only a 1 hr intake- which I felt was highly unnecessary as I couldn't afford his fee out of pocket. Also, the 1 hr session wasn't offered to me initially as the staff didn't even know what was/wasn't covered. Or they didn't want to offer me a 1 hr session...I'll give benefit of the doubt and say bc it was a new process they were still figuring it out. 2. Without going into too much detail, he basically alluded to the fact that my anxiety/depression were somehow because of my period. Meanwhile, I had just been discharged from PHP & IOP eating disorder treatment. and I was crying in his… office. but yea, its my period. Feeling like you have to validate your mental health to a PSYCHIATRIST is just unacceptable, and is this 1950? My menses are making me hysterical? give me a break. 3. I will say the genetic testing was very interesting, and he did a good job explaining everything to me. HOWEVER, this was out of pocket, and REQUIRED for a RX. It ended up being $300 which, I could thankfully put on a CC, but I was made to believe it would be lower. and again, to get an RX I needed to have this testing. 4. After the genetic results came back, he wanted to prescribe me methylated folate- 'brain food' as he called it. Which again, was barely covered by insurance. I explained I really wanted a true antianxiety med, bc I was really struggling to function, so he agreed to prescribe me nefazadone, which I'd never heard of. After doing some research, I expressed some concern about this medication. To be fair, he did respond and talk me through it and alleviated some of my concerns. But did not offer to prescribe anything else. What really annoyed me about all of this, was that the genetic testing was supposed to help him prescribe me something that would work with my chemical make up for less side effects. Within 2 weeks of taking the nefazadone, I was so dizzy & nauseous I could barely function. At that time, I had switched jobs so this doctor was no longer covered at all by my new insurance. So I went to a new doctor, who had never even heard of nefazadone- and prescribed me Lexapro right away with no inhibiting side effects. So I had to spend $300 on a test for him to prescribe me something that was horrible for me anyway. Bottom line- I felt that Dr. Sharmat cared more about showing off his knowledge of the brain's chemistry than listening to me and what I needed. The only silver lining is that now I have this genetic testing that I can give to future providers, but was it really worth it? IMO not really.

I've had an excellent experience as a patient of Dr. Sharmat. His approach to psychiatry and medicine is vanguard in many ways - the results have been incredibly positive for me. In particular, I appreciate his ability to access underlying causes quickly and address them with deep scientific understanding and empathy. I have seen many doctors in New York - Dr. Sharmat is a standout.

I underwent Dr. Sharmat's 2-hour evaluation and have received very quick results with my treatment plan. His genetic breakdown uncovered significant connections between my genetic composition and my mental health, which are brand new to me, no one else has ever done this. For the first time in a long while, after going through four psychiatrists within a little over a year, I'm confident I've found the right treatment with the right doctor. His staff is attentive and responsive, his appointments run on time (rare in NYC) and you feel engaged by their office. I highly recommend Dr. Sharmat and suggest any struggling patient frustrated with their prior treatment or even just someone seeking out a first time evaluation seek him out.