If psychologists were ever able to prescribe medicine, would they see a profit from it?

Question

I'm kind curious for the reasons they are pushing for psychologists to be able to prescribe medicine. Would they make a dime off of it?

Answer 1

Psychiatrists can prescribe medication but do not make any money off it. You pay the pharmacy for the medicine, not the doctor. Psychiatrists sometimes make money from pharmaceutical companies by carrying (and distributing) those free samples, but that's it.

I would imagine psychologists, if they could prescribe medications, would be no different.

Answer 2

Psychologists would "see a profit" if they were able to prescribe medication because then people with psychiatric problems would be likely to skip the psychiatrists altogether and head straight for the psychologist's office thereby increasing their patient load which would translate into more money.

I haven't heard anything about this becoming a possibility, however. Who's pushing for it--the psychologists themselves? I think psychologists are psychologists because they didn't want to go to medical school in the first place. I don't think their education prepares them to prescribe medication. They would have to have some kind of course to prepare them to prescribe psychopharmaceuticals.

The problem with psychiatrists is that they rely too heavily on medication and forget that psychiatric patients are people first. I'm afraid the same thing would happen to psychologists if they were allowed to write prescriptions. It has been proven that a combination of medications and counseling or therapy offers the best outcome in most mental illnesses rather than either one alone. Too bad we don't have one specialist that can offer both.

Answer 3

This idea was floated a few years ago. Psychologists wanted permission to write scripts for anti-depressants. They were told to go to med school. And it's true. Psychologists don't study, as a core part of their discipline, pschoactive medications'.

But would they make money ("see a profit")? Absolutely. So would the giant drug companies, here and abroad. The AMA jealously guards its right to write prescriptions. In my opinion, no shrinks don't have the training. But nevertheless. most of the drugs in PDR -- in any drug store -- should be over the counter. Only drugs that don't "do anything" (unless one takes too much on purpose, as with idiots doing their DMX) are OTC. If it's "efficacious" (a doctor-speak word), it's behind the couter.

Why should statins, Lipitor for example, need a script? Mamu who need it don't go to a doctor for a prescription until its almost too late--so this wd save lives. And why should, similarly, codeine (sulfate) and dexedrine.be prescription. Codeine is NOT ADDICTIVE it is HABIT FORMING, just like Diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and similar anti-histamines. Phenlyephrine, the replacement for pseudoephedrine, is much worse for the heart. How many people have the equipment, deserted space and know-huw to make one drug from another? Few. So that pisses me off, too. I happen to be a democrat, but when it comes to meds I believe the Government is not my parent and I am not a child. This is my life. I should decide what I buy. Do you have any idea how many people make diphenhydramine a hbit? (Lots, though now Ambien is becoming th drug of choice: un=regulated, it is easy. Any doc will give you some lickity-split.

Businesses vs. doctors with their desire to help people, as many as possible. This is America.You can figure it out. Who benefits? Intel and Windows are called the singular "Wintel" due to their mutual development. Get it?

But I hope we change. And no, I don't want psycholoogiststs to be able to write scripts. Whoopy-doo and good for me/. But my master's, no big dea, is equivalentl to a shrinks MSW. MSW so many psychologiests have. I hear no one lobbying for English Teachers being given the right to write scripts. It is the same, to me, with psychologists. Some are brilliant, sure. But most are, basically, a kind of rented friend.

Big business and government play both sides. They fund the people they catch and release in their phony "War on Drugs". One has to curb the demand for a drug, somehow, to curb its coming here. The harder you pull the tighter it gets.

Answer 4

Yes, they would. For instance, my wife sees a psychologists who charges $ 120 per 50-min hour. They have a PhD in psychology. Every few months, she sees a psychiatrist, who is a MD, who CAN prescribe medicine, and he get $110 for a 20-MINUTE session. He has to have both the PhD and the MD.

While you might pass this off as greed, there is a shortage of psychiatrists. However, with the type of medicines they deal with, I would be very leery of a PhD prescribing medicine unless he had some further certification.

Answer 5

Psychologists should never be allowed to prescribe medicine. Their knowledge of anatomy, physiology and chemistry is low to nil.

Answer 6

If psychologists want to be doctors, then they need to go to medical school. Period.

We learn an awful lot during those four years, and a course in psychotropic drugs isn't enough to make it safe for non-doctors to prescribe.

(Reply to Daniel G: Your example for statins - they are not benign drugs - liver function tests need to be checked - are patients going to do that OTC as well? Or are we just going to let people kill their livers and sue the drug makers? )

Answer 7

mostly all doctors are in the industry for the money.