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The real difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist is their approach to mental illness. Having a degree is psychology myself, I can say that the training received in the two fields is almost identical. The key difference being that psychiatrists only want to dole out medication to mask symptoms.
A psychologist will often try different methods of psychotherapy to aid a client in working through their problem. The goal is to get to the root of the issue. Instead of just treating the symptoms of the problem figure out what is causing the symptoms.

Working with the mental health population and keeping track of their medications is a big issue. I personally drive patients to their psychiatric appointments and cringe when they come out handing me a piece of paper with twelve different anti-psychotic meds listed. Can this really be healthy? How much punishment can one persons body really take? I find myself wondering if a perfectly sane person began taking twelve mood altering drugs at once, might it drive them crazy?
These people are little more than guinea pigs for all the drugs they are taking. If one of them starts acting out, usually the only action that is taken is to increase their dosage of some medication. Okay, so Mrs. Doe over here is talking with pressured speech, agitated, aggressive and completely off her rocker. Never mind that she just lost her mother to cancer and received news that both her sons are shipping out to Iraq in a few days, lets just give her more drugs.
I think I have digressed a bit from the original topic so let me get back on track. With proper courses in pharmacology, I believe psychologists should be allowed to prescribe medications. However, I think medications should be used sparingly, and only in conjunction with proper psychotherapy.

Learn more about this author, Julie Bruce.
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