Should psychologists be able to prescribe some psych meds with additional training?

I just read this article that psychologists are asking for the right to prescribe some psych meds (I think only limited to the popular ones). This article said that they would get additional trianing (similar to a nurse or a physician assistant type of training but specific to psych meds only). Their argument is that they will be prescribing and doing therapy with their patients as opposed to having their patient see another person (psychiatrists or their docs) to get their meds instead. They claim that this will be more easier and more effective for their patients. The article also said that the psychiatrists are against it because they think that it will be dangerous for someone who didn't go to medschool to prescribe medicine. Who do you agree with more?

As a psychology major, I fully agree with psychologist prescribing meds. Here's why; Psychologist are Doctors of Psychology. They have all of the formal training including pharmacology; they have more training than a PA or a Nurse Practitioner, and they specialize in psychology. It takes two years to be a PA. Don't you think a psychologist has more training than a general practitioner in major depressive disorder, and other psychological disorders; furthermore, how often does a doctor, nurse, PA, or anyone else conduct therapy sessions with their patients, and that includes a lot of psychiatrist. You have family doctors writing prescriptions everyday for Prozac for patients who are NOT depressed. A lot of docs are PEN HAPPY and MONEY HUNGRY. Psychologist will and would start with therapy and prescribe meds only when needed. In some states, psychologist are able to write; it's a pilot program that I hope becomes national. If you have a psychological disorder, it is best to be treated by one doctor. On the flip side, some psychologist do not want to write because it will increase their malpractice insurance premiums. I hope they all will be able to treat a patient from A to Z; it will cut out the middle man for meds because most to all psychologist have a doctor that will write for them if something is needed. That's my opinion; I hope this answers your question.

If psychologists want to be able to prescribe meds, they can go nursing school and become a PMHNP. Or the could go to med school. But they shouldn't be exempt from the normal requirements to prescribe medications, especially since many psychiatric medications are associated with rare but serious medical complications (so people wouldn't have experience with them, but would need to know what to watch for).

My mom is a psychologist, and I've noticed that she often thinks she knows about the medications her clients are taking, but doesn't always know about all the potential side effects or counter-indications. I'm not sure how well I can explain it, but I was diagnosed as ADHD recently, and my mom definitely had opinions about what medication I should take and how I should take it that were different to what my psychiatrist told me, and what I found through my own research on the subject. She was inclined to dismiss a lot of potential side effects, and didn't seem to know what to watch out for, but what bothered me is that she still thought she knew more about it than my psychiatrist. I think that if she'd been able to prescribe meds, she would have done so based on her opinions of the meds, and would have gotten it wrong. And she's a very skilled psychologist with a lot of experience, who's very well respected within the field, so I shudder to think what a barely-compentent psychologist would do.

Obviously that's a product of lack of medical training rather than something inherent about being a psychologist, but I think that the psychologists asking to be able to prescribe meds while by-passing a lot of the normal medical training going to be people who, like my mom, think they already know enough to prescribe meds, and it's just a formality that they're not allowed.

Like I said, there's nothing stopping psychologists from going to nursing school or medical school, and learning to handle the medical end of their client's treatment as well as the psychological end. However, having training and experience in psychology shouldn't exempt them from any of the training that's required of other prescribers.

With the amount of training that they have I would say yes.