RxP: Is This the Right Move?

1
RxP Is This the Right Move?

• Robert E. McGrath, Ph.D.
• Fairleigh Dickinson University

2
Reservations

• Will we become junior shrinks?
• Will it create unfair competition within
  psychology?
• Will it change the discipline for the worse?
• Will we be co-opted by the drug industry?

3
Benefits to our Patients

• One-stop shopping
• Improved monitoring of compliance/side effects
• Prescription by someone trained in
  psychopharmacology
• Better integration of psychotherapy and
  pharmacotherapy
• Less overmedication/polypharmacy
• Increased awareness of pseudo-psychiatric medical
  conditions
• Fewer mixed messages about treatment

4
Benefits to Society

• Reduced costs
• Reduced use of medications

5
Benefits to Psychology

• Enhanced status
• Increased support for psychosocial research
• The only complete mental health provider

6
Junior Shrinks?

• Pressures on psychiatrists
• Naïve exuberance
• Managed care
• Medical presumptions
• Language problems
• Decline of the loyal opposition

7
Unfair Competition?

• Patient preferences
• Managed care preferences

8
Change the Discipline?

• Postdoctoral training
• Biopsychosocial model
• Malpractice insurance

9
Co-opted by Drug Industry?

• Learning from others
• Ethical guidelines
• The loyal opposition

10

• www.rxpsychology.com