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PublicHealth said:This is faulty logic, as "medical psychologist" is a term recognized by law.
"Master/bachelor-level psychopharmacologist" is not.
Pterion brings up a good point. Data and dollars will speak louder than physicians' "holier than thou" attitude (e.g., Sazi: "the premier healthcare provider...physicians"). Nonphysician groups are equally, if not in some cases, BETTER qualified to provide clinical services. Patients should be able to decide from whom they want to seek services, not the AMA. Check out this site: http://www.patientsrightscoalition.org/
Psychologists who seek RxP do not want to be physicians (and neither do NPs seeking specialty training in psychiatric nursing for that matter). They want to add psychopharmacology as another tool in their clinical arsenal, for the betterment of the patients they serve. As noted in Russ Newman's statement above, psychologists seek to follow a different model of prescribing than physicians. Unfortunately for psychiatry, once the safety of psychologist RxP is demonstrated and the severity of the access problem laid out, psychiatrists' ranting and hand waving about "they will kill patients!" will not fly.
Taking a step back from "taking sides", is any data available that show patients would rather see a psychiatrist MD over the other mental health professionals (RxP, etc.) and visa-versa?