Question

1. A pharmacist received a prescription from a psychiatrist for a cardiac antiarrhythmia drug. Explain if it would violate the law to dispense this prescription and the procedure the pharmacist should follow in this situation.

Answer 1

The pharmacist should consider the psychiatrist's scope of prescriptive authority. The State law, which is also called the State Practice Acts, under the Durham-Humphrey Amendment, grants physicians authority to treat a broad spectrum of medical conditions, and hence, gives them authority to prescribe almost any drugs. According to these laws the psychiatrists, who are even though the specialists, are physicians, hence, can treat and prescribe for conditions outside their speciality. Hence, a psychiatrist prescribing a cardiac antiarrhythmia drug is not violating the law. The pharmacist should dispense this drug as prescribed.