Who should prescribe psychiatric drugs?
I love reading the Psychiatric Times . The long-form articles nearly always express cogent arguments about controversial subjects in the field, and the short-form pieces point out news items I might have otherwise missed. For example, here’s a letter to the editor published a few days ago. The author aruges against the trend toward giving Ph.D.-level psychologists the privilege to prescribe medications like antidepressants after taking a one-year, full-time course. It’s a controversial issue for many reasons, primarly centering around patient health and money. Yesterday, two more articles were posted on the topic, one in favor of expanding prescribing privileges and one against. The current system only allows medical doctors (M.D.’s, including primary care physicians and psychiatrists) to prescribe psychiatric drugs. Psychologists (who have Ph.D.’s or Psy.D.’s), clinical social workers (M.S.W. degrees) and mental health counselors (M.A., M.S., or M.Ed. degrees) are allowed to give talk
