I was asked a question the other day about trying to reduce medications in a patient on hospice. More specifically, how to address the use of PPIs. Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are some of the most overused medications we see in clinical practice, but hospice...
When patients have anemia, supplements often get prescribed. To many of our polypharmacy patients, excessive prescribing can lead to an increase in pill burden that may not always be necessary. When looking at deprescribing supplements, anemia is an excellent disease...
Deprescribing is an important part of care for hospice patients. The main goal of hospice care is to focus on comfort care rather than curative treatments, which means evaluating if a patient’s current medications are still indicated, effective, safe, and convenient....
In this case scenario, we outline a situation of risperidone causing tardive dyskinesia. Tardive dyskinesia is a neurological movement disorder that is typically caused by medications that can block dopamine receptors. Antipsychotics are the most commonly used class...
As a geriatric pharmacist working in long term care and assisted living facilities, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out which medications I should recommend to reduce. Polypharmacy is a big problem but deprescribing needs to be done the right way. There are...
