Just say no to psychotropic drugs!

Abstract

Prescribing drugs for mental disorders by psychologists means accepting an invalid model--the brain disease, biological-defect explanation of psychopathology--that is advanced by political conservatives and accepted by some naive, well-intentioned, but misinformed moderates who have not thought critically about the issue. Conservative psychiatry serves the ruling class by rejecting or ignoring the fact that most mental disorders are learned in the context of social and economic injustice, and familiar dysfunction. If we accept the fallacy of brain disease and genetic defect as the major causes of mental disorder and succeed in getting prescription privileges we will have sold our soul to the devil!

Concluding remarks on the debate about prescription privileges for psychologists

“…The societal need perspective on PPP was addressed in Albee's (2002) paper "Just Say No to Psychotropic Drugs!" and Norfleet's (2002) paper "Responding to Society's Needs: Prescription Privileges for Psychologists."…”

“…Norfleet also raised a critical question of how applied psychologists can survive economically. While her solution for economic survival is PPP, other articles in this special series offer alternative ways applied psychologists can make a living (Albee, 2002;McFall, 2002;and Hayes et al, 2002). Albee (2002) argued that the role of psychology in society addresses different human needs than does the role of medicine, and that these disciplinary boundaries are important to maintain.…”

“…While her solution for economic survival is PPP, other articles in this special series offer alternative ways applied psychologists can make a living (Albee, 2002;McFall, 2002;and Hayes et al, 2002). Albee (2002) argued that the role of psychology in society addresses different human needs than does the role of medicine, and that these disciplinary boundaries are important to maintain. He noted that the organic disease model and classification system that have developed in biological psychiatry and that have been adopted by the pro-PPP psychologists ignores a large psychological literature demonstrating the effects of the environment and learning upon maladaptive behavior.…”

“…As indicated in the introductory article (Heiby, 2002), this special series was organized around six topics that have been disputed in testimony submitted at state legislatures by the American Psychological Association (APA) and the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (AAAPP). These topics and articles addressing them are as follows: (1) whether there is a societal need for psychologists to practice medicine (Albee, 2002;Norfleet, 2002); (2) whether are precedents indicating psychology as a discipline has evolved in this direction (Sechrest & Coan, 2002); (3) how train-ing would change the discipline (Levant & Shapiro, 2002;McFall, 2002);(4) what the addition of medical training would cost financially (Wagner, 2002); (5) if the current collaborative model is adequate (Bush, 2002;Weene, 2002); and (6) how the policy of APA and AAAPP can be better understood (Caccavale, 2002;Hayes, Walser, & Bach, 2002). Articles reflecting the APA position on the evolution of the field and the financial cost of training were solicited but not submitted for this special series.…”

Concerns about substandard training for prescription privileges for psychologists

“…The RÂP proposal remains controversial within psychology and objections involve anticipated negative effects of the amount of training (Albee, 2002;Bush, 2002;Hayes & Heiby, 1996, 1998Hayes, Walser, & Bach, 2002;Heiby, 2002;Heiby et al, 2004;McFall, 2002;Pollitt, 2003;Sechrest & Coan, 2002;Wagner, 2002). Proponents of RÂP have observed that the major reason for the failure of most enabling legislation is concern over the quality of the APA model training (Fox et al, 2009), and the consumer protection reasons given in one governor's veto of an enabling bill supports this impression (Lingle, 2007).…”