Diversity in Psychopharmacology and Pharmacotherapy

The revised 2019 standards for psychopharmacological training: Model education and training program in psychopharmacology for prescriptive authority.

“…Fourth, the 2019 standards have increased delineation of the required clinical experiences in the areas of physical assessment and medication management. Fifth, the new standards emphasize the importance of cultural and individual differences and diversity in the training of psychologists, consistent with the Commission on Accreditation guidelines of APA accredited doctoral training programs in health services that are required to attend to issues of individual and cultural diversity (De La Cancela, 2000).…”

“…Programs developed under these most recent standards will continue and expand upon the previous versions’ commitment to providing training and experiences that encourage cultural knowledge of, and sensitivity to the interaction of pharmacological interventions with development across the life span, sex assigned at birth, gender identity, health status (including co-occurring health and psychological conditions), race, ethnicity, culture, socioeconomic status, disability, nationality of origin, generational status, citizen status, and other forms of population diversity (De La Cancela, 2000). This diversity must be reflected in both the didactic and experiential program components allowing prescribing psychologists to develop appropriate skill-based competencies to address the unique needs related to diversity and inequity in the relevant population (De La Cancela, 2000).…”

A Model for Predoctoral Psychopharmacology Training: Shaping a New Frontier in Clinical Psychology.

“…De La Cancela (2000) defined ethnocultural competence in psychopharmacology as the operationalizing of knowledge of genotypically based differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, familiarity with culture-bound syndromes, and awareness of sociocultural variables that affect these groups. Cultural incompetence is increasingly being recognized as unethical clinical practice.…”

“…A level of basic competence in psychopharmacology is necessary for clinical psychologists because (a) increasing numbers of our clients are likely to be prescribed psychoactive medications by their primary care providers in response to presenting psychological complaints (Beardsley, Gardocki, Larson, & Hildago, 1988; Pincus et al, 1998), (b) there is growing support in the empirical literature for the superior efficacy of combined psychotherapeutic and pharmacotherapeutic approaches for many common disorders (Sammons & Schmidt, 2001), and (c) differential effects of psychoactive medications mediated by ethnicity, gender, and age can determine efficacy and medical risk for our clients (De La Cancela, 2000; Lin, Poland, & Nakasaki, 1993). In addition, the increasing awareness that the pharmacological interventions for many common medical conditions, as well as these conditions themselves, impact the psychological state of the individual (Morrison, 1997) suggests that psychologists also may need education in these areas.…”