Reducing medications safely to meet life’s changes
What medications were good then might not be the best choice now. Deprescribing is the planned process of reducing or stopping medications that may no longer be of benefit or may be causing harm. The goal is to reduce medication burden or harm while improving quality of life.
Be part of the change for a better quality of life
Patients
Learn about deprescribing and check out resources to help you discuss deprescribing with your health care provider.
Health Care Providers
Get comfortable deprescribing with tools and resources, case reports and testimonials, and relevant publications.
Researchers
Find out about ongoing research at Bruyère Research Institute and the University of Montreal and join the conversation to share your own research.
As the population ages, older Canadians are living with multiple chronic conditions. In 2016, 35% of community-dwelling seniors had chronic use of 5 or more different drug classes.
Canadian Institute for Health Information. Drug use among seniors 2016.Inappropriate prescriptions are known to pose health risks for older adults, leading to unnecessary hospitalisations and undue cost.
Budnitz DS, Lovegrove MC, Shehab N, Richards CL. Emergency hospitalizations for adverse drug events in older Americans. The New England Journal of Medicine. 2011;365(21):2002-12“It is an art of no little importance to administer medicines properly; but it is an art of much greater and more difficult acquisition to know when to suspend or altogether omit them.”
Philippe Pinel 1745-1826What’s happening?
Millions of Canadians using acid-reflux drugs for too long, risking health side-effects
May 5, 2019 - Doctors are warning that millions of Canadians are taking a commonly prescribed class of drugs used to treat acid reflux much longer than the recommended two-month period, upping the risk of a number of health-related side-effects. Read more
Evaluation of a Deprescribing Guideline Mobile Application
The four evidence-based deprescribing guidelines and algorithms produced through the leadership of the Bruyère Research Institute and the Ontario Pharmacy Evidence Network, and the guideline developed through an NHMRC-ARC Dementia Research Fellowship have been built...
The Unsung Role of the Pharmacist in Patient Health
January 28, 2019 - We know many people end up with a risky pileup of prescribed medications. Many efforts have been made, with varied success, to correct this problem. Yet we’ve usually focused on physician behavior, when there’s another powerful lever: pharmacists....
Keep up with the latest
“Medicines safety and #deprescribing are now on the radar of Canadian community organisations, the government, pati… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Absolutely - people should always be clear about how long the medication is intended for, and what non-drug approac… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
If only everyone included reason for use and stop/review dates! Great job! twitter.com/drjohncosgrove…
New study explores the use of benzodiazepines as adjuvant therapy for antipsychotic agents in schizophrenia, partic… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
“A consequence of #polypharmacy is a higher risk of adverse side effects emerging from drug-drug interactions in wh… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
The #polypharmacy guide from @NHS_HS provides tools and guidance for patients and health care providers to review m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Want to get more involved?
Are you a patient, a caregiver or a researcher? You can participate in the deprescribing conversation.
Need more information?
If you wish to obtain more information about deprescribing or the resources found on our site, please contact us.