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Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Introducing deprescribing into culture of medication

By Catherine Cross
Canadian Medical Association
Originally published August 12, 2013

An Ontario pharmacist has received a government grant to develop clinical guidelines to help doctors determine whether patients are on medications they no longer need or that should be reduced.


"We don't normally test drugs in the elderly, but they are taking many drugs. As they get older and get more chronic conditions, the number of medications increases," says Barbara Farrell, a clinical scientist with the Bruyère Research Institute in Ottawa, Ontario.


Sometimes when medications are deprescribed or reduced, "confusion will clear, or they'll stop falling, and a lot of literature supports that," says Farrell, who received the $430 000 grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.


The entire story is here.