Can psychiatrists prescribe antibiotics?

[KaraM]

I'm asking this on behalf of someone else whose child was recently diagnosed with OCD and who has an appointment coming up with a psychiatrist.

She also asked if they are typcially open to PANDAS. I didn't have much experience to offer her. Any thoughts? I imagine it's individual - just like with pediatricians.

She's in the Houston area, so if anyone has recommendations for psychiatrists or other docs, please let me know. Hopefully she'll migrate over here as she learns more about PANDAS....in the meantime, I'm trying to offer any support I can.

 

Thanks,

Kara

[Iowadawn]

Psychiatrists COULD rx abx, if they would. See this whole "microbes & mental health" starts to poke of holes in the psych drug world. In my opinion, this knowledge is nothing new, but BIG Pharma is working overtime to squelch the info. It has to be getting harder & harder. Opinion Dawn

[PhillyPA]

Psychiatrists are medical doctors and can prescribe anything that a medical doctor would prescribe.

[Worried_Dad]

As others have mentioned, our experience was that - even though psychiatrists can legally prescribe antibiotics - they aren't comfortable doing so and will just refer you to a different doc for this. If you're lucky enough to find a sympathetic child psychiatrist who believes in PANDAS/PITAND and is also willing to write an abx script, you hit the jackpot!

[mama2alex]

We first found a psychiatrist who believed in PANDAS, had worked with some PANDAS kids and was open to prescribing antibiotics. Since she's a medical doctor, she was able to prescribe antibiotics for my son. We've since moved on to a Lyme-literate doctor who can look in-depth at any/all underlying infections, not just prescribe the antibiotics we think might work.

[EAMom]

Yes, psychiatrists (but not psychologists) are MD's and can rx antibiotics. However, it does seem that sometimes they prefer to have the ped (or other MD) rx the antibiotics. Maybe it is turf thing???