Can psychiatrists and psychologists prescribe medications?
The short answer is that only Doctors in Medicine, ie. psychiatrists, are adequately trained to prescribe medications (including psycho-pharmachological agents, also known as psychotropics). Traditionally, since Hippocratic times, only those trained in the art/science of Medicine have knowledge of the biological/physiological effects of medications in humans. Psychiatrists have the medical background and a comprehensive understanding (as comprehensive as the advancement of science allows us) of how chemical agents (including medications, non-biological substances, toxic agents, and drugs) interact with the human body. All medications affect multiple organs and systems in humans. The body absorbs, distributes, metabolizes and eliminates all medications. Medications have specific target organs and work by modifying the cell or chemical function of the organ. In psychiatry the target cells are located in the brain. The brain is an exquisitely complex and sensitive organ (arguably the most
