42 Psychology as a Profession
proposal within the psychological community and extreme
opposition within the local psychiatric community (DeLeon,
Fox, & Graham, 1991). This, however, was to be the begin-
ning of psychology’s prescriptive authority (RxP-) quest.
In 1989, the APA Board of Professional Affairs (BPA)
held a special retreat to explore the issues surrounding psy-
chology obtaining RxP- authority. It concluded by strongly
endorsing immediate research and study regarding the feasi-
bility and the appropriate curricula in psychopharmacology
so that psychologists might provide broader service to the
public and more effectively meet the psychological and
mental health needs of society. Further, the BPA also recom-
mended that focused attention on the responsibility of prepar-
ing the profession to address current and future needs of the
public for psychologically managed psychopharmacological
interventions be made APA’s highest priority. Interestingly, in
the 1970s, the APA board of directors had appointed a special
committee to review this very matter. The recommendation at
that time was that psychology not pursue prescription privi-
leges, primarily since the field was doing so well without that
authority! (DeLeon, Sammons, & Fox, 2000).
At the APA annual convention in Boston in 1990, the mo-
tion to establish an ad hoc Task Force on Psychopharmacol-
ogy was approved by a vote of 118 to 2. Their report back to
council in 1992 concluded that practitioners with combined
training in psychopharmacology and psychosocial treatments
could be viewed as a new form of health care professional,
expected to bring to health care delivery the best of both psy-
chological and pharmacological knowledge. Further, the pro-
posed new provider possessed the potential to dramatically
improve patient care and make important new advances in
treatment (Smyer et al., 1993).
On June 17, 1994, APA president Bob Resnick was for-
mally recognized during the graduation ceremonies at the
Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the first two Depart-
ment of Defense (DoD) Psychopharmacology Fellows, Navy
Commander John Sexton and Lt. Commander Morgan
Sammons. This program had been directed by the Fiscal Year
1989 Appropriations bill for the Department of Defense
(P.L. 100–463) (U.S. Department of Defense, 1988) and
would ultimately graduate 10 fellows. Upon their graduation,
each of these courageous individuals became active within
the practitioner community, demonstrating to their col-
leagues that psychologists can indeed readily learn to provide
high-quality psychopharmacological care. Several of the
graduates have become particularly involved in providing
consultation to evolving postdoctoral psychopharmacology
training programs. All of the external evaluations of the
clinical care was provided by the DoD Fellows (ACNP,
Summer, 2000).
At its August 1995 meeting in New York City, the APA
Council of Representatives formally endorsed prescriptive
privileges for appropriately trained psychologists and called
for the development of model legislation and a model train-
ing curriculum. The follow year in Toronto, the council
adopted both a model prescription bill and a model training
curriculum. Those seeking this responsibility should possess
at least 300 contact hours of didactic instruction and have
supervised clinical experience with at least 100 patients
requiring psychotropic medication. In 1997, the APAGS
adopted a “resolution of support” for the APA position. And,
that same year, at the Chicago convention, the council autho-
rized the APA College of Professional Psychology to develop
an examination in psychopharmacology suitable for use by
state and provincial licensing boards. This exam became
available in the spring of 2000. As of the summer of 2001,
approximately 50 individuals had taken the examination,
which covers 10 predetermined distinct knowledge areas.
By late 2001, the APA Practice Directorate reported that
RxP- bills had been introduced in 13 states and that the APA
Council had demonstrated its support for the agenda by allo-
cating contingency funding totaling $86,400 over 5 fiscal
years. In its February 2001 reexamination of the top priorities
for APA’s future, the APA Council of Representatives had
placed advocacy for prescription privileges as number six of
21 ranked priorities for the association. While no comprehen-
sive bill has yet passed, the U.S. territory of Guam has passed
legislation authorizing appropriately trained psychologists to
prescribe in the context of a collaborative practice arrange-
ment with a physician. During the spring of 2001, a psycholo-
gists’ prescriptive authority bill only very narrowly missed
passage in New Mexico, successfully making it through
two House committees, the full House, and a Senate commit-
tee. Further, we would note that a reading of an amendment
to the Indiana Psychology Practice Act, which passed in
1993, indicates that psychologists participating in a federal
government–sponsored training or treatment program may
prescribe. Thirty-one state psychological associations cur-
rently have prescription privileges task forces engaged in
some phase of the RxP- agenda. Patrick H. DeLeon has had the
pleasure of serving as the commencement speaker for three
postdoctoral masters’ psychopharmacology graduations (in
Louisiana, Texas, and Florida). By the summer of 2001, co-
horts of psychopharmacology classes had also graduated in
Georgia (two separate classes), Hawaii, and New Mexico,
with additional cohorts enrolled in several different states. The
Prescribing Psychologists’ Register (PPR) also reports having
graduated a significant number of students. Psychology’s
RxP- agenda is steadily advancing (DeLeon, Robinson-
Kurpius, & Sexton, 2001; DeLeon & Wiggins, 1996).