Tuesday, April 20, 2004

APA Deeply Concerned over Louisiana House Vote to Give Prescribing Rights to Psychologists; "Patients' Lives at Risk," Warns Goin
US Newswire press release - "The American Psychiatric Association (APA) is deeply concerned over yesterday's vote by the Louisiana House of Representatives to grant psychologists, who are not physicians, the right to prescribe powerful brain medications. The House voted 62-31 to pass HB 1426, which would permit self-professed 'medical psychologists' to prescribe psychotropic medications -- drugs that act on a patient's brain -- by getting training that is far short of medical school and residency. ... In addition to giving psychologists prescribing rights, the bill would subject prescribing psychologists to the lone oversight of the state Board of Examiners of Psychologists, a regulatory board whose members are not trained in the practice of medicine and cannot judge anyone's medical competency. The Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners has jurisdiction over judging medical competency in the state -- including for physicians, lab personnel and even acupuncture assistants -- but the bill's proponents would not allow language into the bill to include oversight from the medical board."