The term mental illness is used to describe a particular model or behavioral disorder characterized by unusual actions and motifs (Hart & Ksir, 2014). A patient suffering from mental disorders demonstrates a set of symptoms that deteriorate the quality of his/her life significantly. For this reason, there is a great need for a medication that will be able to suppress the appearance of any problematic patterns. Today, antipsychotics are used to treat mental disorders.
In patients with schizophrenia excessive transmission of dopamine causes deterioration of their state (Nesvag, Bramness, & Ystrom, 2015). For this reason, antipsychotics prevent neurotransmitters from activating and bind dopamine receptors preventing a new attack of the disease (Hart & Ksir, 2014). The given approach could be considered much more efficient than earlier treatments when patients were just given opiates to calm them down without taking into account the way different drugs impact their nervous system and neurotransmitters.
However, the usage of drugs to treat mental disorders also triggered a vigorous discussion related to the psychologists allowability to prescribe medication (McGrath et al., 2004). The threatening statistics related to the excessive use of drugs and medications could be provided as a strong argument against the given decision (Nesvag et al., 2015). The fact is that psychologists are not medical doctors as they study the way peoples conscience preconditions behavior.
However, they do not have specific medical training and might lack the knowledge needed to prescribe a certain medication. Especially dangerous it could be when a patient needs drugs because they are extremely addictive and might destroy his/her personality in case they are prescribed and used not in a proper way. Finally, psychologists also lack an improved understanding of the way neurotransmitters and other receptors work (Hart & Ksir, 2014). In this regard, psychologists should not be allowed to prescribe medication.
References
Hart, C., & Ksir, C. (2014). Drugs, society, and human behavior. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
McGrath, R. E., Wiggins, J. G., Sammons, M. T., Levant, R. F., Brown, A., & Stock, W. (2004). Professional issues in pharmacotherapy for psychologists. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 35(2), 158-163.
Nesvag, R., Bramness, G., & Ystrom, E. (2015). The link between use of psychedelic drugs and mental health problems. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 29(9), 1035-1040. Web.