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Originally Posted by MikeWaters
I agree with you that psychologists pursuing prescribing rights is stupid. Mainly because it doesn't differentiate what you do from what I do. And who would choose to see the lesser trained person for meds? It would erase the profession to some degree. Not to mention that I don't think a one semester course is suffiencient to understand comorbid illnesses (physical) and their associated treatments which may interact with psych meds. Recipe for disaster.
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Agreed. There are a few compelling arguments here and there for it, but by and large some of my principal concerns are those that you've stated.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikeWaters
I think there is a role for medication management practices. If these folks didn't exist, many people would not be able to afford treatment. And a lot of people aren't interested in therapy.
I have a patient that has tried therapy with me and another doc. He just wants the panic attacks to go away (they have). He needs refills. And he couldn't afford 50min therapy anyway.
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I agree. We all play for the same team after all, we just often fill different niches and respond to different needs. I don't tend to get feces-smearing severity (although you might be surprised what makes it into even a university counseling center on occasion) and you don't tend to get the 'walking worried' or 'wounded well' so to speak.
I guess I just think if people in my field wanted to be medical doctors, they should have done so. There are those that argue about limited availability of psychiatrists in rural areas, and those that say psychologists would do a better job of it. But in the end I can't ignore that there is a big financial incentive as well that people in my field wish to de-emphasize, but it's still there.
And speaking of money, I know this goes both ways, but I also have clients that don't want to spend any more money on meds as they've been doing for 7 years, and instead give 10-12 sessions a try. In those cases, I think even at $100/hr (unless you're in a setting like mine which is free) it ends up being considerably cheaper. Depends a lot on what people are willing to do.
On a side note, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is particularly effective for panic attacks
among other things I do. I won't call it a specialty yet because I hold myself out as a generalist, but I do tend to have a lot of success with the spectrum of anxiety-related problems and kind of enjoy working with it.