Future Retirement Success
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Investing
  • Stocks

Future Retirement Success

Investing

New Evidence That Prescribing Psychologists Can Save Lives

by June 7, 2023
June 7, 2023

Jeffrey A. Singer

Removing barriers to prescribing psychologists (RxPs) saves patients the inconvenience and added expense of seeing a psychiatrist or other health care practitioner that states license to prescribe psychiatric medications. Such practitioners include family physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants—even general surgeons like me. Now comes a study showing that it also saves lives.

In Effects of Giving Psychologists Prescriptive Authority: Evidence From a Natural Experiment in the United States, researchers publishing in the journal Health Policy used data from the National Vital Statistics System of the National Center for Health Statistics from 1999–2015 to evaluate suicide rates before and after New Mexico and Louisiana expanded psychologists’ scope of practice to include prescriptive authority. The authors concluded:

Expanding the scope of practice of doctoral‐​level psychologists who have completed training in clinical psychopharmacology to include prescriptive authority is associated with a 5 to 7 pp [percentage point] decrease in suicides in New Mexico and Louisiana. The largest reductions in suicides are for male, white, married, single, and middle‐​aged sub‐​populations. The results are robust to several different additional specifications and frameworks.

And:

In the U.S., expanding scope of practice for specifically trained psychologists to include prescriptive authority may help address poor mental health care outcomes, such as suicides. Similar policy expansions may be useful for other countries where referral from a psychologist and prescription assignment from a psychiatrist are separated.

In a recent Cato briefing paper, I urged state lawmakers to remove obstacles that block doctorate‐​level clinical psychologists trained in clinical psychopharmacology from prescribing psych meds to their patients. For more than 30 years, RxPs have been providing mental health services to patients in the military, the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the Indian Health Service. Guam lifted barriers to RxPs in 1999, followed in 2002 by the state of New Mexico and shortly after that by Louisiana. Today, six states, most recently Colorado, have expanded access to mental health services by removing barriers preventing RxPs from serving mental health patients.

With only 11 percent of psychiatrists engaging in talk therapy nowadays—most primarily practice pharmacotherapy—and roughly 50 percent of psychiatrists no longer accepting health insurance, expanding the ranks of trained psychotherapists who can also prescribe medications makes sense.

Representatives of organized medicine, most notably the American Psychiatric Association and its affiliates, oppose this reform. The President of the American Psychiatric Association argued against the proposal in a Cato online policy forum on the topic.

In testimonies before the Colorado Senate and the Arizona Senate, I told lawmakers that removing barriers to RxPs will expand access to mental health services without spending taxpayer dollars. Colorado lawmakers removed the barriers earlier this year. In Arizona, a bill to remove them passed the Senate, but the Arizona Psychiatric Association lobbied successfully against it in the House.

As the need for mental health services in the United States continues to grow, the arguments for this reform grow stronger, and the case against it grows weaker. Before long, entrenched incumbents will be unable to block this reform in the remaining states.

0
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
previous post
Dead raccoon left for Oregon mayor, Black official along with ‘racially hateful’ message
next post
Not Indentured: Most H‑1Bs Starting Jobs in 2022 Switched U.S. Employers

You may also like

Student Loan Forgiveness and Standing

July 3, 2023

Deregulation, Not Rent Control, Is the Right Response...

November 4, 2024

Immersive Outreach Programs May Be a Better Investment...

May 17, 2024

Worried About Declining Marriage Rates? Our Ancestors May...

February 14, 2025

Sorry Unions, China Isn’t Responsible for US Shipbuilding...

March 18, 2024

The Center for Immigration Studies Is Still Wrong...

March 6, 2024

School Choice Madness: How I Picked My Teams

March 21, 2025

Jimmy Lai: Prisoner of the State

May 30, 2023

Will Trump Privatize the USPS?

December 18, 2024

Friday Feature: Riverside Educational Services

May 10, 2024

    Get free access to all of the retirement secrets and income strategies from our experts! or Join The Exclusive Subscription Today And Get the Premium Articles Acess for Free

    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • Republicans struggle with Trump’s mixed signals on ‘big, beautiful bill’

      May 15, 2025
    • Gabbard moves presidential daily intelligence brief staff from CIA to ODNI

      May 14, 2025
    • SMCI Stock Rebounds: Why Its SCTR Score is Screaming for Attention

      May 14, 2025
    • WATCH: RFK Jr Senate hearing disrupted by screaming protesters: ‘RFK kills people with hate’

      May 14, 2025
    • Pharmaceutical Pricing Around the World

      May 14, 2025
    • Republicans’ One, Big, Beautiful Tax Bill Needs a Makeover

      May 14, 2025

    Categories

    • Business (7,958)
    • Investing (1,959)
    • Politics (15,223)
    • Stocks (3,084)
    • About us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms & Conditions

    Disclaimer: futureretirementsuccess.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2025 futureretirementsuccess.com | All Rights Reserved