It is argued that several features of clinical psychology deserve comparison with clinical pharmacology; in particular, the treatment and design of experiments in the latter are more precisely controlled and have a sounder theoretical basis. Clinical psychology needs to develop efficient powerful therapies with properties analogous to the new “magic bullet” drugs. It also needs to develop instruments testing susceptibility to treatment analogous to assessing effects of metabolic rate in clinical pharmacology.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. (3rd ed.) Washington, DC: Author.
2.
BarlowD. H.CohenA. S.WaddellM. T.VermilyeaB. B.KloskoJ. S.BlanchardE. B.Di NardoP. A. (1984) Panic and generalized anxiety disorders: Nature and treatment. Behavior Therapy, 15, 431–449.
3.
BarnettD. B. (1985) Drug therapy: Blunderbuss or magic bullets. Inaugural lecture, Leicester University.
4.
ClaridgeG. (1985) Origins of mental illness. Oxford: Blackwell.
5.
EysenckH. J. (1984) Special review. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 22, 323–324.
6.
HilgardJ. R.HilgardE. R.NewmanM. F. (1961) Sequelae to hypnotic induction with reference to earlier chemical anaesthesia. Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 133, 461–478.
7.
LaurenceD. R.BlackJ. W. (1978) The medicine you take: Benefits and risks of modern drugs. London: Croom Helm.
8.
MayouR. (1980) Management of neurotic problems in general practice. Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 30(220), 678–681.
9.
McGuireR. J. (1973) Classification and the problem of diagnosis. In EysenckH. J. (Ed.), Handbook of abnormal psychology. Belfast: Pitman. Pp. 3–33.
10.
PoundA. (1978) In defense of eclecticism: A clinical psychologist's view of psychological theories. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 31, 360–361.
11.
RutterM.ShafferD. (1980) DSM—III: A step forward or back in terms of the classification of child psychiatric disorders?Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 19, 371–394.
12.
ShapiroM. B. (1985) A reassessment of clinical psychology as an applied science. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 24, 1–11.
13.
SpectorJ. (1984) Clinical psychology and primary care: Some ongoing dilemmas. Bulletin of the British Psychological Society, 37, 73–76.
