There they go again. A fourth attempt to allow Arizona psychologists to prescribe powerful psychiatric medications is making its way through committee in the form of SB 1125. This terrible idea still endangers patients, and it must be stopped.
Fundamentally, psychologists lack the comprehensive medical education and clinical training necessary to safely prescribe powerful psychiatric drugs. The new bill would require just 1,000 in-person hours and 900 virtual hours of clinical training over two years, while medical doctors complete over 15,000 in-person hours of clinical training. SB 1125 fails to mandate crucial science prerequisites like chemical reactions, instead allowing any general science course to suffice.
The American Psychological Association’s Designation Criteria for Education and Training Programs in Psychopharmacology for Prescriptive Authority outlines an academic program with 62 subsections across 13 domains, which is far more comprehensive than what this bill proposes.
SB 1125’s sponsors promised to limit the types of medications psychologists could prescribe, but the bill provides no practical mechanism for enforcement. Under SB1125, a psychologist could prescribe any medication — including powerful stimulants, like Ritalin, and sedatives, like Xanax, with minimal oversight by a supervising physician, who may practice only in a prison, as occurs in other states, and supervise up to four psychologists who are trying to learn how to prescribe any drug available.
SB 1125’s oversight structure is problematic. Three understaffed boards (Medical, Osteopath and Psychologist Examiners) must oversee prescribing psychologists, with unclear divisions of responsibility. The bill also limits the psychologist’s liability by evaluating care only against the “supervising agreement” rather than standard medical care guidelines.
SB 1125’s dysfunctional oversight is dangerous for patient safety.
Psychologists under SB 1125 would receive 49% of their training in prisons, where medication options are restricted to five types and patient conditions may not reflect those in the general population. Without comprehensive clinical training supervised by experienced mental health physicians, they may struggle to distinguish psychological symptoms from underlying medical conditions like thyroid dysfunction, diabetes or medication interactions — oversights that could be fatal.
We’ve already witnessed the tragic outcomes of similar legislation. In New Mexico in 2023, one of the few states permitting psychologists to prescribe medication, 17 recent deaths were associated with a psychologist’s overprescription of Xanax.
While addressing mental health in Arizona is crucial, SB1125's approach of allowing inadequately trained professionals to prescribe psychiatric medications is dangerous. The bill’s drafters have dismissed evidence-based concerns from medical experts, ignoring proven solutions like the Collaborative Care Model and an increasing number of mental health providers including physician assistants and nurse practitioners. These alternatives are much safer and more reliable than what SB 1125 proposes.
The medical community remains united in opposing SB 1125. This bill remains as dangerous as previous, weak attempts to expand prescribing authority. Arizonans deserve better laws to protect patients than this reckless approach to mental health care.
Editor’s note: Nick Ahrendt, MD is president of the Arizona Psychiatric Society. Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.
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