A Review of: “McGrath, R. E., & Moore, B. A., Eds. (2010). Pharmacotherapy for Psychologists: Prescribing and Collaborative Roles”

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Notes

Of course, there is much more here than costs and outcomes, narrowly defined. Like medical care, mental health care outcomes—positive and negative—can be highly nuanced and multifaceted, sometimes only visible to the practiced eye that takes time to look (see Groopman, 2007).

I recall that one of my PsyD graduates used to hand out “assignments” to his clients written on something that looked like a prescription pad.

Changes in language can occur without our realizing it. For example, workshop or hospital faculty used to promote “Dr. John Smith.” This changed to the generic “psychologist” and then this changed to the word “provider.” It is difficult to identify the referents for the term “provider.”

I would imagine that many of the conditions that prevail now were present when I worked with native populations in South Dakota in the 1960s.

This change was brought about by economic forces, not for substantive reasons.

In situations separated by time and geography, I have been a professor in medical school and in graduate school. Medical education is much more than a limited set of courses. The academic part of medical education is very broad and, more importantly, it requires an extreme and prolonged immersion in the culture of treating patients. I participated in a program that admitted the very best candidates, all with PhDs in the “hard” sciences, to complete medical school in 18 months and then go on to residency. Working day and night, even this enormously gifted group had to struggle to shave down the time requirements of medical education. Going through a condensed curriculum is one thing, but simply taking a series of courses will never do the job of a medical education.