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, check out resources to help you discuss deprescribing or join the conversation about how you can get involved in research.
Health Care Providers
Get comfortable deprescribing with tools and resources, find out about the Canadian Deprescribing Network or join the conversation about research.
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 2012, 66% of community seniors had claims for 5 or more drug classes.
Canadian Institute for Health Information. Drug use among seniors on public drug programs, 2012. Ottawa, Ontario. May 2014.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?
Diabetes Medications: Should You Deprescribe Them in the Elderly?
Barbara Farrell discusses the recently developed antihyperglycemic deprescribing algorithm and guidelines, developed by the BRI Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team with Medscape (Dec 27th,...
The other big drug problem: Older people taking too many pills
Barbara Farrell discusses the ongoing issue of older people taking too many medications and ways to facilitate deprescribing with the Washington Post (Dec 9th,...
Deprescribing guidelines – Tools for implementation
Deprescribing can be challenging. The “Deprescribing Guidelines for the Elderly” project developed guidelines and decision-support tools in the form of algorithms. Our knowledge translation tools will include whiteboard videos to help clinicians use these algorithms...
Keep up with the latest
Special issue on #deprescribing in online journal "Pharmacy" - submit for deadline April 30, 2018 mdpi.com/journal/pharma…
Johannna Trimble shared her patient/family #deprescribing perspective at #deRx2018 “Families can be the interface b… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
New study finds a possible connection between antihyperglycemics and an increased risk of #IBD #deprescribing ow.ly/4Lfi30jsPhc
#deprescribing is a team effort, pharmacists play a big role in providing appropriate medication for seniors ow.ly/siQS30jsOwN
Survey gathered from 1,059 undergraduate pharmacy students found that 78% had written fewer than 5 prescriptions du… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
Check out @ISMPCanada recently published bulletin #Deprescribing: Managing Medications to Reduce #Polypharmacy ow.ly/fHy930jsCE8