Posted by Racer on July 9, 2008, at 13:13:08
In reply to What do psychopharmacologists do?, posted by Quintal on July 9, 2008, at 12:27:26
> What is the difference between a pdoc and a psychopharmacologist, apart from medical training? Can psychoparmacologists prescribe drugs too?
Psychopharmacologists are basically psychiatrists who specialize in medications, rather than generalizing in both medication and therapy. Some psychiatrists still do therapy, but psychopharmacologists do medication only. There's not a lot of difference in training -- although I suspect some will pay less attention to the therapy aspects of their training -- and as MDs, they can indeed prescribe medications.
In theory, specializing gives them more expertise in medications, and they can be a bit more "creative" in finding medications for treatment resistant individuals. Otherwise, the only real difference is the name. If they refer to themselves as psychopharmacologists, they're saying they do medication management only. Otherwise, they may also do therapy.
I hope that helps.
poster:Racer
thread:839001
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20080706/msgs/839007.html