<p>Gross and/or repeated breaches of ethical standards is normally cause for revocation of any professional licence (e.g. psychology, medicine, law, accounting, engineering).  Possibly relevant ethical standards may include:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.psychology.org.au/getmedia/d873e0db-7490-46de-bb57-c31bb1553025/APS-Code-of-Ethics.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.psychology.org.au/getmedia/d873e0db-7490-46de-bb57-c31bb1553025/APS-Code-of-Ethics.pdf</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/ethics-code-2017.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/ethics-code-2017.pdf</a></li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-19T00:00:31.893Z
2020-06-19T00:00:31.893Z
Tony Mobbs
<p>I'm a writer and, in this story I'm currently writing, a psychiatrist researches a new therapy method before finally testing it on his patients. My plan, however, was to eventually have his license revoked, but I wonder on what grounds exactly? Would it be because of using an officially unapproved therapy on patients? Does this mean that a therapy can only be publicly used if approved by either a state board that oversees psychologist/psychiatrist or the ethics committee of the APA?</p>
<p>I apologize if this is a strange or weirdly worded question, but I'm not sure how to delicately word this.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-06-22T13:35:47.577Z
Welcome to Psychology.SE. There are many aspects involved in your question which need clarification before it can be answered in any way meaningful. What US state or country are you covering? Is the therapy method completely new or is it a slight variation on another method already in use? What does the therapy model entail? Is the therapy provided for children or adults? Could you please provide these details at least?
Chris Rogers
<psychiatry><therapy><ethics>
Could a psychiatrist have their license revoked for using a new type therapy procedure on patients?
Justin Sewell
# Could a psychiatrist have their license revoked for using a new type therapy procedure on patients?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-06-18)

I'm a writer and, in this story I'm currently writing, a psychiatrist researches a new therapy method before finally testing it on his patients. My plan, however, was to eventually have his license revoked, but I wonder on what grounds exactly? Would it be because of using an officially unapproved therapy on patients? Does this mean that a therapy can only be publicly used if approved by either a state board that oversees psychologist/psychiatrist or the ethics committee of the APA?

I apologize if this is a strange or weirdly worded question, but I'm not sure how to delicately word this.

**Tags:** psychiatry, therapy, ethics

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Welcome to Psychology.SE. There are many aspects involved in your question which need clarification before it can be answered in any way meaningful. What US state or country are you covering? Is the therapy method completely new or is it a slight variation on another method already in use? What does the therapy model entail? Is the therapy provided for children or adults? Could you please provide these details at least?  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2020-06-19. Score: 0

Gross and/or repeated breaches of ethical standards is normally cause for revocation of any professional licence (e.g. psychology, medicine, law, accounting, engineering). Possibly relevant ethical standards may include:

* <https://www.psychology.org.au/getmedia/d873e0db-7490-46de-bb57-c31bb1553025/APS-Code-of-Ethics.pdf>
* <https://www.apa.org/ethics/code/ethics-code-2017.pdf>


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