Patients should be seen over a sufficiently extended period of time and under supervision to provide an understanding of the natural course of mental disorders and the impact of medications at various stages of illness. Further, comprehensive clinical training must encompass variations in pharmacokinetics, organ functioning, drug interaction, and side effects. This requires the availability of clinical disorders across the life cycle, including child and adolescent, as well as geriatric populations. Candidates should be required to pass national examinations designed to assess basic principles, the ability to diagnose accurately, and the capacity to prescribe with safety and efficacy. These competency examinations should be modeled on the relevant modules of the National Board of Medical Examiners examinations and should reflect the standards of clinical care determined to be at least minimally appropriate.
Ample evidence exists that retention of usable knowledge from such formats is very limited.
Although the present proposal directly addresses, as an example, the training of clinical psychologists in preparation for limited prescribing privileges, other professionals might be appropriate for this type of training. Another group that might especially benefit from additional training in psychopharmacology would be M.D. practitioners who thus far have not had much clinical experience in psychiatric treatment. Given the Government's position that an oversupply of physicians exists, this group should be readily available to increase the number of individuals trained to provide psychiatric treatment. Finally, another group of professionals might be those with a doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy.