Medication Management Chicago
Why Some Psychologists Decide to Prescribe Medications
During my carrier of being a psychologist, I have run into many obstacles in regards to managing medication for my patients. In the past, I was able to provide psychotherapy and neuropsychological testing, but I was unable to prescribe medication. Not only was I unable to prescribe medication but also, I was unable to find a psychiatrist for my patients.
I worked with my patients who could not be treated by a specialist. When they did find one, they often had to wait for months for their initial appointment.
I reached out to primary care physicians to stabilize my patients during the first twenty years of my career. Many of them did not want to make decisions about mental health medications.
In short, there was, and still is, not enough psychiatric providers.
To aide in the shortage of psychiatric providers, some psychologists decided to fill the gap, including me. My dreams to be able to provide psychotherapy and medication management under one roof become reality. Now, I am a prescribing psychologist. Since, it is relatively new specialty, I will first provide a short history about it, and then explain how I work.
History of Medication Management by Prescribing Psychologists
The career of a Prescribing Psychologist became a distinct psychologist specialty in 1991. In 1991, prescribing psychologists started to prescribe effectively for the military, and then Indian Health Service and other US Public Health Services. In 1999, prescribing psychologists started to work in the territory of Guam.
In 2002, New Mexico became the first state to have prescribing psychologists, then Louisiana (2004), Illinois (2014), Iowa (2016), Idaho (2017), and Colorado (2023). Other states are currently working on allowing psychologists to prescribe.
Requirements to Become a Prescribing Psychologist
Each state requirements to become a prescribing psychologist vary. Therefore, I would like to introduce first what it takes to be a prescribing psychologist in general, and then how to become one in Illinois.
In general, requirements include completing specialized instruction and training, acquiring:
-Master’s degree in clinical psychopharmacology,
-passing a National Standardized Exam – Psychopharmacology Examination for Psychologists (PEP)
Above requirements are on top of receiving a doctorate in clinical psychology.
Additional Requirements for Medication Management in Illinois by a psychologists:
Completion of nine medical rotations that, in general, include:
- neurology,
- psychiatry,
- internal medicine,
- pediatrics,
- gerontology,
- obstetrics/gynecology,
- surgery,
- emergency department,
- and family medicine are required.
- On top of completing those, I also completed an additional rotation in cardiology.
-Altogether, an amount of at least 1,620 hours of clinical experience within a span of 14 to 28 months in required.
-In Illinois, the psychologist has to complete the 80 hours of physical exam fellowship.
-Pre-med classes such as anatomy, biochemistry, endocrinology, histology, microscopic pathology, etc.
How Do I Work?
Now, that you know what I had to do to be able to provide medication management – Chicago to treat mental health patients, I would like to share with you a situation that most of my patient’s experience. I will call my patient Jamie.
Jamie came to me for the first time with symptoms of severe anxiety. The anxiety was so pronounced that work was getting to be hard, family issues were put on the back burner, and friendships were foregone. Jamie had a primary care physician that tried prescribing different antidepressants, but none of them worked. Jamie told me that the struggle with mental health had been a lifelong issue as Jamie noted: “never felt good.”
I initially, decided to observe and listen to my patient. As you know, I am a psychologist, hence, my visits with the patient are at least 45 minutes, but may be much longer.
Eventually, we decided that a new antidepressant would be tried. With time, the anxiety turned to be so severe, and the psychotic symptoms occurred.
At that point, I changed the diagnostic criteria from anxiety to depression with psychotic features. I introduced an antipsychotic. The antipsychotic worked, but the anxiety prevailed.
With time, and during our weekly visits, we had the opportunity to talk about symptoms and re-evaluate them. This, in turn, allowed us to re-evaluate the diagnostic criteria, and Jamie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Jamie was then prescribed mood stabilizer and regained feeling stable. This a success story and reflects how I work. I have time for my patients, we make decisions together, and we celebrate together when their lives go back to normal.
Thanks to medication management and psychotherapy, I was able to learn about my patient and help to restore Jamie’s life.
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