Professional Issues in Pharmacotherapy for Psychologists

Much of the critical discussion of prescriptive authority for psychologists has focused on the question of whether this is the right direction for the profession. The authors contend that discourse on prescriptive authority should progress to identification of the challenges that lie ahead for psychology as a prescribing profession, with the goal of anticipating and addressing those challenges as early in the process as possible. The authors identify a number of such potential challenges, including both general issues of professional identity and more practical concerns. In some cases, the authors express their opinions on these matters, but more generally their intention is to spur reasoned discussion of the issues psychologists will face.