What if clinicians treating mental disorders were also collaborators with patients rather than only dispensers of medication? It's a simple but profound shift in how to think about approaching psychopharmacology, and in Prescribing Together, Warren Kinghorn, Esther Colliflower Associate Research Professor of Pastoral and Moral Theology; co-director of the Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative; and associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and Abraham Nussbaum, M.D., M.T.S.’0, argue that this relationship-building is critical to prescribing more effectively and to achieving health equity.

While many books have focused on what to prescribe, this volume is more concerned with how to prescribe: how to talk to patients about medications, how to understand the cultural and social factors that affect how they relate to medication, and how to build trust in the relationship. Each chapter offers a practical introduction to a key concept or skill, from cultural formation and structural competency to medication concordance and de-prescribing. Profiles of a diverse group of accomplished clinicians serve as an engaging, real-life foundation for evidence-based strategies for building strong alliances in the context of 13 mental disorder categories.

Prescribing Together encourages clinicians not just to look at their patients, but to look with them at their lived experience in order to understand their stories and interpersonal and social contexts—all with the aim of returning agency to patients and empowering them to set meaningful goals and to be active participants in their own flourishing.