Improving Efficiency and Effectiveness of Psychopharmacology Practice: What Must Be Done and What Shouldn't Be Done

As the science and the data underlying psychopharmacology treatments has become roughly equal to the science underlying medical illness, the level of quality care to achieve psycho pharmacology clinical competence in practice has become more difficult for clinicians. This article aims to fill the gap in teaching psychopharmacology and raise the quality level by describing the core tasks for prescribing quality clinical psychopharmacology. We describe reasons why the quality is low, the most common clinical practices that are not being done, and most importantly, delineate the necessary elements for initial and ongoing follow-up visits. The goal is an integrated approach incorporating objective, subjective, and relational factors in psychopharmacology practice.