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Reducing Inappropriate Polypharmacy: The Process of Deprescribing

Inappropriate polypharmacy, especially in older people, imposes a substantial burden of adverse drug events, ill health, disability, hospitalization, and even death. The single most important predictor of inappropriate prescribing and risk of adverse drug events in older patients is the number of prescribed drugs. Deprescribing is the process of tapering or stopping drugs, aimed at minimizing polypharmacy and improving patient outcomes. Evidence of efficacy for deprescribing is emerging from randomized trials and observational studies. A deprescribing protocol is proposed comprising 5 steps: (1) ascertain all drugs the patient is currently taking and the reasons for each one; (2) consider overall risk of drug-induced harm in individual patients in determining the required intensity of deprescribing intervention; (3) assess each drug in regard to its current or future benefit potential compared with current or future harm or burden potential; (4) prioritize drugs for discontinuation that have the lowest benefit-harm ratio and lowest likelihood of adverse withdrawal reactions or disease rebound syndromes; and (5) implement a discontinuation regimen and monitor patients closely for improvement in outcomes or onset of adverse effects. Whereas patient and prescriber barriers to deprescribing exist, resources and strategies are available that facilitate deliberate yet judicious deprescribing and deserve wider application.

The feasibility and effect of deprescribing in older adults on mortality and health: a systematic review and meta‐analysis

AIMS Deprescribing is a suggested intervention to reverse the potential iatrogenic harms of inappropriate polypharmacy. The review aimed to determine whether or not deprescribing is a safe, effective and feasible intervention to modify mortality and health outcomes in older adults. METHODS Specified databases were searched from inception to February 2015. Two researchers independently screened all retrieved articles for inclusion, assessed study quality and extracted data. Data were pooled using RevMan v5.3. Eligible studies included those where older adults had at least one medication deprescribed. The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes were adverse drug withdrawal events, psychological and physical health outcomes, quality of life, and medication usage (e.g. successful deprescribing, number of medications prescribed, potentially inappropriate medication use). RESULTS A total of 132 papers met the inclusion criteria, which included 34 143 participants aged 73.8 ± 5.4 years. In nonrandomized studies, deprescribing polypharmacy was shown to significantly decrease mortality (OR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.17-0.60). However, this was not statistically significant in the randomized studies (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.61-1.11). Subgroup analysis revealed patient-specific interventions to deprescribe demonstrated a significant reduction in mortality (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.43-0.88). However, generalized educational programmes did not change mortality (OR 1.21, 95% CI 0.86-1.69). CONCLUSIONS Although nonrandomized data suggested that deprescribing reduces mortality, deprescribing was not shown to alter mortality in randomized studies. Mortality was significantly reduced when applying patient-specific interventions to deprescribe in randomized studies.

The feasibility and the effect of deprescribing in older adults on mortality and health: A systematic review

AIMS Deprescribing is a suggested intervention to reverse the potential iatrogenic harms of inappropriate polypharmacy. The review aimed to determine whether or not deprescribing is a safe, effective and feasible intervention to modify mortality and health outcomes in older adults. METHODS Specified databases were searched from inception to February 2015. Two researchers independently screened all retrieved articles for inclusion, assessed study quality and extracted data. Data were pooled using RevMan v5.3. Eligible studies included those where older adults had at least one medication deprescribed. The primary outcome was mortality. Secondary outcomes were adverse drug withdrawal events, psychological and physical health outcomes, quality of life, and medication usage (e.g. successful deprescribing, number of medications prescribed, potentially inappropriate medication use). RESULTS A total of 132 papers met the inclusion criteria, which included 34 143 participants aged 73.8 ± 5.4 years. In nonrandomized studies, deprescribing polypharmacy was shown to significantly decrease mortality (OR 0.32, 95% CI: 0.17-0.60). However, this was not statistically significant in the randomized studies (OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.61-1.11). Subgroup analysis revealed patient-specific interventions to deprescribe demonstrated a significant reduction in mortality (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.43-0.88). However, generalized educational programmes did not change mortality (OR 1.21, 95% CI 0.86-1.69). CONCLUSIONS Although nonrandomized data suggested that deprescribing reduces mortality, deprescribing was not shown to alter mortality in randomized studies. Mortality was significantly reduced when applying patient-specific interventions to deprescribe in randomized studies.

Deprescribing in Frail Older People: A Randomised Controlled Trial

Objectives Deprescribing has been proposed as a way to reduce polypharmacy in frail older people. We aimed to reduce the number of medicines consumed by people living in residential aged care facilities (RACF). Secondary objectives were to explore the effect of deprescribing on survival, falls, fractures, hospital admissions, cognitive, physical, and bowel function, quality of life, and sleep. Methods Ninety-five people aged over 65 years living in four RACF in rural mid-west Western Australia were randomised in an open study. The intervention group (n = 47) received a deprescribing intervention, the planned cessation of non-beneficial medicines. The control group (n = 48) received usual care. Participants were monitored for twelve months from randomisation. Primary outcome was change in the mean number of unique regular medicines. All outcomes were assessed at baseline, six, and twelve months. Results Study participants had a mean age of 84.3±6.9 years and 52% were female. Intervention group participants consumed 9.6±5.0 and control group participants consumed 9.5±3.6 unique regular medicines at baseline. Of the 348 medicines targeted for deprescribing (7.4±3.8 per person, 78% of regular medicines), 207 medicines (4.4±3.4 per person, 59% of targeted medicines) were successfully discontinued. The mean change in number of regular medicines at 12 months was -1.9±4.1 in intervention group participants and +0.1±3.5 in control group participants (estimated difference 2.0±0.9, 95%CI 0.08, 3.8, p = 0.04). Twelve intervention participants and 19 control participants died within 12 months of randomisation (26% versus 40% mortality, p = 0.16, HR 0.60, 95%CI 0.30 to 1.22) There were no significant differences between groups in other secondary outcomes. The main limitations of this study were the open design and small participant numbers. Conclusions Deprescribing reduced the number of regular medicines consumed by frail older people living in residential care with no significant adverse effects on survival or other clinical outcomes. Trial Registration Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12611000370909

Herbal medicine for insomnia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Insomnia is a prevalent sleep disorder that can profoundly impact a persons health and wellbeing. Herbal medicine represents one of the most frequently used complementary and alternative treatments of insomnia. However, the safety and efficacy of herbal medicine for the treatment of this disorder is currently uncertain. In order to ascertain the evidence base for herbal medicine for insomnia, we systematically searched seventeen electronic databases and the reference lists of included studies for relevant randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Fourteen RCTs, involving a total of 1602 participants with insomnia, met the inclusion criteria. Four distinct orally administered herbal monopreparations were identified (i.e., valerian, chamomile, kava and wuling). There was no statistically significant difference between any herbal medicine and placebo, or any herbal medicine and active control, for any of the thirteen measures of clinical efficacy. As for safety, a similar or smaller number of adverse events per person were reported with kava, chamomile and wuling when compared with placebo. By contrast, a greater number of events per person were reported with valerian. While there is insufficient evidence to support the use of herbal medicine for insomnia, there is a clear need for further research in this area.

Deprescribing in frail older people – Do doctors and pharmacists agree?

BACKGROUND Deprescribing may reduce harmful polypharmacy in older people and is an accepted clinical practice; however, data to guide deprescribing decisions are scarce. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to determine if physicians and pharmacists agree on medicines to deprescribe. METHODS Two physicians and two pharmacists independently applied a deprescribing decision-making aid to clinical and medicines data collected during a deprescribing trial of frail older people in four residential aged care facilities. The consensus list of medicines selected for deprescribing by the physicians was compared with the consensus list selected by the pharmacists. Lins concordance correlation coefficient (CCC) was used to assess agreement in the number of medicines, and agreement on each specific medicine was assessed using the level 2 intra-cluster correlation (ICC) for medicine within patient. RESULTS Physicians and pharmacists had substantial agreement on the number of medicines to deprescribe (CCC = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.58, 0.82), with a difference of 1.8 ± 2.0 total targeted medicines. For specific medicines, the agreement was moderate (ICC = 0.45, 95% CI: 0.32, 0.58). When considering only orally administered medicines, physicians and pharmacists had substantial agreement (CCC = 0.73; 95% CI: 0.61, 0.84) in the number of medicines, but only moderate agreement for the specific medicines (ICC = 0.44, 95% CI: 0.30, 0.59). CONCLUSIONS Physicians and pharmacists had substantial agreement in the number of medicines they targeted to deprescribe and to continue, but physicians targeted a greater number of medicines for deprescribing than pharmacists. However, they had only moderate agreement in the specific medicines to deprescribe. This suggests that the deprescribing decision-making aid is a useful tool for health professionals to use when considering medicines to deprescribe.

Deprescribing in older people.

Older people with chronic disease have great potential to benefit from their medications but are also at high risk of harm from their medications. The use of medications is particularly important for symptom control and disease progression in older people. Under-treatment means older people can miss out on the potential benefits of useful medications, while over-treatment (polypharmacy) puts them at increased risk of harm. Deprescribing attempts to balance the potential for benefit and harm by systematically withdrawing inappropriate medications with the goal of managing polypharmacy and improving outcomes. The evidence base for deprescribing in older people is growing. Studies to reduce polypharmacy have used a range of methods. Most evidence for deprescribing relates to the withdrawal of specific medications, and evidence supports attempts to deprescribe potentially inappropriate medicines (such as long-term benzodiazepines). There is also evidence that polypharmacy can be reduced by withdrawing specific medications using individualised interventions. More work is needed to identify the sub-groups of older people who may most benefit from deprescribing and the best approaches to undertaking the deprescribing interventions.

Medication appropriateness tool for co-morbid health conditions in dementia: consensus recommendations from a multidisciplinary expert panel.

Medication management for people living with dementia is a complex task as it is unclear what constitutes optimal medication management in this population due to the shifting focus of health priorities and the balance between the benefits and harms of medications.

Prescribing for Australians living with dementia: study protocol using the Delphi technique.

Introduction Prescribing is complicated for people living with dementia, and careful consideration should be given to continuing and initiating all medicines. This study aims to elicit opinion and gain consensus on appropriate medicine use for people living with dementia in Australia to create a consensus-based list of explicit prescribing criteria. Methods and analysis A Delphi technique will be used to develop explicit criteria of medication use in adults aged 65 years and above. An interdisciplinary panel of Australian experts in geriatric therapeutics will be convened that will consist of a minimum of 10 participants. To develop the consensus-based criteria, this study will use an iterative, anonymous, multistaged approach with controlled feedback. Round 1 questionnaire will be administered, and subsequently qualitatively analysed. The round 1 results will be fed back to the panel members, and a round 2 questionnaire developed using questions on a five-point Likert scale. This process will repeat until consensus is developed, or diminishing returns are noted. Ethics and dissemination All participants will be provided with a participant information sheet, and sign a written consent form. Ethical approval has been granted from the University of Western Australias Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) (reference: RA/4/1/7172). We expect that data from this study will result in a paper published in a peer-reviewed clinical journal and will also present the results at conferences.

A practical approach to the pharmacological management of hypertension in older people

Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular (CV) morbidity and mortality in adults over the age of 65. The first part of this paper is an overview, summarizing the current guidelines on the pharmacological management of hypertension in older adults in Europe and the USA, and evidence from key trials that contributed to the guidelines. In the second part of the paper, we will discuss the major challenges of managing hypertension in the context of multimorbidity, including frailty, orthostatic hypotension (OH), falls and cognitive impairment that are associated with ageing. A novel ‘BEGIN’ algorithm is proposed for use by prescribers prior to initiating antihypertensive therapy to guide safe medication use in older adults. Practical suggestions are highlighted to aid practitioners in making rational decisions to treat and monitor hypertension, and for considering withdrawal of antihypertensive drugs in the complex older person.