Prescriptive authority and psychology: a status report

The progress of psychology toward the acquisition of prescriptive authority is critically reviewed. Advances made by other nonphysician health care professions toward expanding their scopes of practice to include prescriptive authority are compared with gains made by professional psychology. Societal trends affecting attitudes toward the use of psychotropic medications are reviewed, and the potential influence of such trends on the prescriptive authority movement is examined. A history of the prescriptive authority movement is documented, and recent legislative and policy initiatives are discussed.