|
|
|
...what they don't know. Why psychologists should not prescribe
by Julia Warnock, M.D., Ph.D. I have the very good fortune of being both a psychologist and a physician with specialty training in psychiatric medicine. As a Past President of the Oklahoma Psychiatric Physicians Association, I have been asked my opinion regarding the issue of psychologists attempting to prescribe psychiatric medication in Oklahoma. I wish to offer my experience. After training for four years to obtain a Ph.D. in psychology, I worked as a hospital-based psychologist consulting to cardiology, pulmonary and general medical wards. For over two years, I worked with several healthcare teams on various hospital wards providing psychological services. Even though my psychology training gave me more exposure to patients with medical problems than most psychologists, nothing in my Ph.D. psychology training or clinical psychology work experience prepared me to understand the complex pathophysiology of the human body. Nothing in my prior training adequately prepared me to evaluate, diagnose or treat the biological disorders of the brain. Later, after four years of medical school and four additional years of supervised specialty training in psychiatric medicine, I became a Psychiatrist. I developed competence in the assessment of the psychopathology of the brain and the potential interactions of other organ systems with the brain. I obtained the skills needed to properly care for, evaluate, and treat patients with biological disorders of the brain. This is in contrast to my prior training as a psychologist, which only prepared me to treat psychological problems. As a Ph.D. psychologist evaluating a patient for depression, I was not capable, nor qualified to determine, if the depressive symptoms were due to a thyroid disorder, low blood sugar or a brain tumor. As a Ph.D. psychologist, I surely was not competent to determine if a patient's complaint of auditory hallucinations (hearing voices) was due to any one of many serious psychiatric disorders, or resulted from too much cardiac medication or to an unidentified seizure disorder. Prescribing psychiatric medications for patients with psychiatric brain disorders requires a well-trained, knowledgeable, compassionate and competent physician (M.D. or D.O.). As physicians (M.D.), we try every day to uphold the section of the Hippocratic oath, "Do No Harm." My concern is that psychologists, who might try to prescribe potent psychiatric medications, are not even aware of what they don't know. Psychologists with a Ph.D. have no medical training to understand potential mild or serious drug interactions or the side effects of medications. Psychologists do not have the clinical knowledge of how to manage these common situations in a medical practice. I urge you to educate your legislators about the difference between a formal medical education (M.D.) and a psychological degree (Ph.D.). The patients of Oklahoma are the potential victims. Ask anyone who understands the difference in training between a Ph.D. and a M.D. the following question: "If your loved one developed a psychiatric illness that required medication, who would you want to prescribe the necessary medication?" I venture the answer would be, "A physician (M.D.)." We must appeal to the legislators of Oklahoma to protect their constituents who have psychiatric disorders. Do not let psychologists prescribe in Oklahoma. ###### |
Send mail to
oklapsychiatry@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site.
|