Clinical psychology graduate students' opinions about prescriptive authority: A discussion of medical versus psychological training models

This study examined current clinical psychology doctoral students' interest in gaining prescriptive authority and opinions about potential training options. Three hundred and sixty-three students completed an exploratory survey via electronic mail distributed by the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) listserv. Our results suggest that the majority of these students are at least somewhat interested in gaining prescriptive authority, as well as willing to add three or four graduate-level courses and 6 to 12 months to their internship or post-doctoral positions for psychopharmacology training. Most of the students surveyed felt that training should resemble a medical training model. Implications of these findings are discussed, particularly within the context of the current psychological and medical training models.