Blog

A Main Line psychiatrist has lost her medical license after a state investigation found she had sex with a young patient for years, all while prescribing him a revolving mix of up to 12 medications, including highly addictive psychotropic drugs, without proper evaluations.

Amy Mazza MacIntyre, a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist in Bryn Mawr, started treating a then-17-year-old cancer survivor in 2004 when he was a senior at Lower Merion High School.

MacIntyre first had sex with him in February 2011, when he was 24 years old. She stopped billing him for treatment around the same time, though she continued to take patient notes for another 2½ years. She continued prescribing him powerful psychiatric drugs while having sex with him through mid-2017, according to an investigation by the Pennsylvania State Board of Medicine.

The board revoked her medical license in May, finding she had engaged in sexual misconduct and inappropriate prescribing in violation of state medical licensing laws. She is appealing the disciplinary board’s decision, which followed lawsuits between MacIntyre and the patient, Justin Kopicki, in civil courts.

The board’s investigation — based partly on emails, texts, and voicemail messages that MacIntyre sent Kopicki — revealed that she gave him a $5,000 saxophone and a Cartier watch, hired him to work in her office, proposed marriage to him, told him she miscarried his baby, sent him naked selfies, and took him on trips, including to Turks and Caicos and Walt Disney World.

Kopicki, who is now 39, said in an interview that MacIntyre had “groomed” and manipulated him while prescribing “really large quantities” of stimulants and benzodiazepines, including “Xanax and Klonopin mixed together.”

“If I refused to go away on a trip with her, or I refused to see her, or I wanted to break up with her, she would refuse to prescribe antianxiety medications until I saw her again,” Kopicki said.

She also prescribed medications to his mother and father, although they were not her patients, the board found.

The board’s revocation order refers to Kopicki by his initials, but he gave The Inquirer permission to use his name.

MacIntyre, 52, did not return calls and emails from a reporter. Her lawyer, Gary Samms, said he advised her to decline comment.

“Dr. MacIntyre is an excellent, caring and compassionate physician,” Samms wrote in an email last week. “The board decision is being appealed to the Commonwealth Court where we believe we will be victorious.”

The board revoked her license on May 28 and ordered her to “immediately cease practicing medicine.”

“By engaging in a sexual relationship with a patient while continuing to prescribe medications without appropriate evaluation or oversight, [MacIntyre] compromised the safeguards that protect patients from harm and undermined confidence in the medical profession,” the board wrote in its revocation order.

A woman who answered the phone at MacIntyre’s Lancaster Avenue office late last week said she was still practicing but unavailable to speak with a reporter. MacIntyre did not reply to a voicemail message asking whether she was still treating patients. Samms did not reply to a follow-up email on the subject.

Earlier this month, the state board rejected her emergency request to stay the revocation of her license pending her appeal. She plans to argue her case before a judge on Thursday, Commonwealth Court records show.

‘Shifting explanations’

MacIntyre admitted to sexual misconduct and violating medical licensing laws on three other counts: immoral and unprofessional conduct involving a patient; failure to maintain complete medical records; and fraudulent, reckless, or negligent practice.

During the disciplinary proceedings, MacIntyre had only disputed claims that she engaged in improper prescribing. However, she argued for lighter discipline, such as probation, on all counts.

She testified at a state hearing last year that she had been fearful of Kopicki and felt “trapped.” She said the sex was not consensual, but coerced, and that she had feared for her safety and that of her family.

She said she had repeatedly tried to get a protection-from-abuse court order against the patient but did not qualify for one. (Such proceedings are not public record).

The board rejected her arguments, citing a lack of evidence to support her “claims of coercion,” “shifting explanations,” and inexcusable actions.

MacIntyre also cited “personal stressors,” including “family losses, the birth of a child, and her mother’s decline due to early dementia,” the report states.

While treating Kopicki, she introduced him to her young daughter and was married, state and court records show.

After contact with Kopicki ended in 2017, she said, she went to therapy to address her “understanding of appropriate boundaries.”

She also limited her interactions with patients to mostly medication management rather than therapy. And she had not violated any regulations for the last decade, she said, arguing for less severe discipline.

Kopicki said he provided the state with “thousands of text messages,” dating back to 2011, showing she aggressively pursued him and used medication to control him.

“She put it in writing so it was extremely difficult for her to be like, `It was him. He’s the aggressor,’” Kopicki said.

Her lawyer, Samms, said he believed MacIntyre’s appeal of the board’s revocation order to the Commonwealth Court will prevail.

“There are numerous issues and contested facts that support the doctor’s position,” Samms wrote in an email, declining to comment further due to the appeal.

First treatment, then sex

Diagnosed with leukemia at age 4, Kopicki received chemotherapy treatments at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia until age 7, when the cancer went into remission. In high school, he became depressed and anxious. His mother thought his mental health problems stemmed from his cancer history and contacted CHOP, which referred the family to MacIntyre. Then 31, the psychiatrist was considered “relatable to a younger patient,” Kopicki said.

The board’s order described how her initial therapeutic care morphed into inappropriate sexual contact:

MacIntyre diagnosed Kopicki with anxiety and agoraphobia at his initial appointment in 2004. She thought he also might have obsessive-compulsive disorder. She started him on medication.

In 2010, his treatment sessions with MacIntyre “became focused on [Kopicki’s] sexual activity.”

In early 2011, Kopicki, then 24, expressed feelings for her in an email; the relationship seemed to be crossing professional lines. He was unsure if he should continue treatment with her.

MacIntyre, then 37, wrote him back, saying she “was sorry if he felt it was best not to meet” and to “let her know if he wanted to be back in touch.”

During a session a few days later, she told him she “wanted to climb on top on him” and did so, kissing him, the board’s order says.

They had sex for the first time at his father’s house in early February 2011, and she continued to formally treat him through June 2013, writing patient notes in his medical record, according to the board’s investigation.

She kept a log of medications she prescribed him through March 2014 and continued prescribing into 2017, the board found.

When Kopicki tried to cut ties with MacIntyre, he said in the interview, she would change or increase his medications, saying his “mood is out of control.”

“I trusted her,” he said. “When she was like, ‘You need X, Y, and Z medication,’ I put trust in her.”

Kopicki said she became very involved with his family, attending dinners and events, including his mother’s wedding in California. She also prescribed medications to his parents.

In spring 2017, MacIntyre showed up at Kopicki’s father’s house, yelling and demanding to speak with Kopicki. His father called 911, the board found.

Kopicki cut off all communication with MacIntyre in July 2017.

‘Not acceptable’

Kopicki said he first complained about MacIntyre to the state medical board in 2017, shortly before filing a medical malpractice lawsuit against her in Montgomery County Court.

His lawyers advised him not to cooperate with the state while the case was in litigation. The state dropped his complaint, he said.

MacIntyre settled the case with Kopicki in 2020 for an undisclosed amount.

After the settlement, Kopicki said, he again complained to the board in 2021.

Later that year, MacIntyre sued Kopicki in civil court for breaching a nondisclosure clause in their settlement agreement that prevented him from discussing her actions with authorities.

In January, a judge ordered Kopicki to pay MacIntyre $25,000 for violating the agreement, court records show.

Kopicki, who is now in law school in Oregon, said he intentionally violated the agreement “for the good of the public interest.”

“This is not acceptable and she needs to be held accountable,” Kopicki said.