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Location: Specialist Counselors, Psychologists and Psychiatrists.
Discussion: Give Psychologists the Right to Prescribe Medication
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PacShady |
Give Psychologists the Right to Prescribe Medication
Apr 25 2008, 3:19 AM EDT
Currently, psychologists cannot prescribe medication for mental conditions, such as antidepressants, anxiolytics, etc. The psychologist, trained in matters of the human brain, must submit to a GP who, in many cases, have had no specialist training in mental disorders, to prescribe these kind of drugs. It seems highly hypocritical how a psychologist is considered unqualified to prescribe these specialist medications, when one can simply walk into any doctor's office, say "I feel depressed," and get a 6 month prescription for Prozac or Effexor without any assessment on the person's actual mental health.Obviously the medication being prescribed would be limited to drugs to do with mental conditions, and perhaps should be limited to basic drugs such as antidepressants, some anxiolytics, etc. except in the case of a clinical psychologist who, specialising in more severe mental disorders, should be able to prescribe antipsychotics and mood stabilisers etc. But psychologists are more qualified in matters of the mind than general practitioners with no extra training, and as such should have at least these rights instead of having to refer to a GP who has no idea and is only interested in printing out a prescription without actually assessing if the patient needs it. 2 out of 2 found this valuable. Do you? |
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