Frequently Asked Questions

Can you help me reduce or stop my medications?

The Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team encourages people who have personal medication-related questions to meet with their usual health care provider/team to discuss safely tapering or stopping any medications.

If you reside in Ontario, you may also consider meeting with a pharmacist in your community to complete a free MedsCheck Review and Pharmaceutical Opinion. These programs help to ensure patients are getting the most benefit from their medications and can help to identify potential drug related problems. Ask your pharmacist if similar programs or services exist in your region.

Patient-related deprescribing resources are available on our website — including a link to MedStopper — that can help you review your medications. Or check out the Canadian Deprescribing Network website for helpful advice.

Also, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada has developed a resource that suggests five questions to ask your health provider about your medications, especially if you are on a number of drugs.

How do I use the algorithms?

The Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team has developed whiteboard videos to demonstrate how to use the deprescribing guidelines and algorithms. Links to the videos are available in the Resources section of the website. The videos can also be accessed through the Deprescribing YouTube channel.

Is your team planning on publishing more guidelines?

The Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team currently does not have funding to develop more guidelines. Consider joining the International Deprescribing Research Interest Group to connect with others that may have work in your area of interest. See the information under “How can I get involved with deprescribing research?” for more details.

As well, the Bruyère Research Team has developed a step-by-step instruction manual that outlines what to consider if producing a new, evidence-based deprescribing guideline. This manual supplements our deprescribing guideline methodology article found here.

Can I modify one of the Bruyère deprescribing guideline algorithms, patient pamphlets, or infographics?

Because the algorithms and their related pamphlets and infographics are based on published, evidence-based deprescribing guidelines (1 – 5), we ask that you do not modify them to suit an individual project or practice site. Such modifications could change the interpretation of the content, rendering them inconsistent with the guideline publications. Multiple versions in circulation could also create confusion.

If you wish to incorporate a drug availability table specific to your country, please contact us with the table you wish included. For example, we have created versions specific to the UK and Australia that we can supply on request.
If you wish to provide additional information or advice specific to your project or practice site, please attach a second page to the algorithm with these specifics. For example, your second page could state:

“Please disregard information about z-drugs for this study as our study is not addressing this group of drugs”

“The following is not available in our hospital: _____________”

Please send a copy of your ‘second page’ information specific to your study to the Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team so we can review the draft and provide feedback and the appropriate citations. If you have already made changes to any of the algorithms, pamphlets, or infographics, please let us know as soon as possible at [email protected] so that we can assess if the intent of the guideline recommendations has been altered.

Farrell B, Black C, Thompson W, McCarthy L, Rojas-Fernandez C, Lochnan H, et al. Deprescribing antihyperglycemicagents in older persons. Evidence-based clinical practice guideline. Can Fam Physician 2017;63:832-43 (Eng), e452-65 (Fr)
Bjerre LM, Farrell B, Hogel M, Graham L, Lemay G, McCarthy L, et al. Deprescribing antipsychotics for behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia and insomnia: Evidence-based clinical practice guideline. Can Fam Physician 2018;64:17-27 (Eng), e1-e12 (Fr).
Pottie K, Thompson W, Davies S, Grenier J, Sadowski C, Welch V, Holbrook A, Boyd C, Swenson JR, Ma A, Farrell B. Evidence-based clinical practice guideline for deprescribing benzodiazepine receptor agonists. Can Fam Physician 2018;64:339-51 (Eng), e209-24 (Fr)
Reeve E, Farrell B, Thompson W, at al Evidence-based Clinical Practice Guideline for Deprescribing Cholinesterase Inhibitors and Memantine. 2018.ISBN-13: 978-0-6482658-0-1 Available from: http://sydney.edu.au/medicine/cdpc/resources/deprescribing-guidelines.php
B, Pottie K, Thompson W, Boghossian T, Pizzola L, Rashid FJ, et al. Deprescribing proton pump inhibitors. Evidence-based clinical practice guideline. Can Fam Physician 2017;63:354-64 (Eng), e253-65 (Fr).

How can I get involved in deprescribing research?

To learn more about on-going deprescribing research initiatives and network with deprescribing researchers, please consider joining the online International Deprescribing Research Interest Group hosted through ResearchGate.

Once you join the interest group, you will have access to the latest research articles and profiles for deprescribing researchers. You can post interesting information and articles, ask and answer research-related questions, and engage with experts in the field of deprescribing.

To post and respond to questions, you must have a ResearchGate account. Once you’re logged in, follow Frank Moriarty or Wade Thompson and send them a message saying: “Please add me as a collaborator to the Deprescribing: Research Repository.” Frank or Wade will add you as a collaborator, and then you’ll be able to start posting.

If you’re interested in a quick overview of deprescribing research initiatives and getting contact information for researchers, please visit this repository and add information about your own projects.
If you’re interested in contributing to deprescribing guideline development, evaluating the impact of the Bruyère deprescribing guidelines, or using our deprescribing self-efficacy survey, contact the Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team directly: [email protected]

I’m interested in translating a deprescribing algorithm, patient pamphlet or infographic, where do I start?

First, please refer to our translation policy.

Email the Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team at [email protected] to let us know the language to which you’d like to translate our materials. We can let you know if someone has done similar work and help you get in contact with the creator.

What other organizations are involved in deprescribing?

Consider reaching out to our colleagues at the Canadian Deprescribing Network for community engagement opportunities focusing on polypharmacy.

Choosing Wisely Canada has incorporated the Bruyère deprescribing algorithms into their toolkits along with other useful information to help with deprescribing. You can find these toolkits here and here.

Links to more resources and organizations involved in the deprescribing movement are available in the helpful links section of our website.

I’ve published a resource on deprescribing, can it be added to the “helpful links” section?

The Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team reviews resources on a case-by-case basis. Our team does not regularly post additional resources on our site, however, if staffing permits, we try to review individual requests whenever possible.

For text articles, please forward approximate word count, title, short summary of the content, and the full text of your article in the email body to [email protected].
For websites, please send your company or website name, mission statement, and a brief description of ongoing activities to [email protected].

Before submitting, please review our resource criteria. The Bruyère Deprescribing Guidelines Research Team uses this checklist to evaluate suggested resources and websites.