Infographic: Difficulties of Deprescribing in Primary Care

As rates of polypharmacy increase, putting older patients at risk of drug-related adverse events, some have identified deprescribing as a way to mitigate these dangers and reduce unnecessary prescription drug utilization. However, a recent study conducted with primary care physicians finds that discontinuing a patient’s ongoing prescription may be easier said than done.

Published in Annals of Family Medicine, the study discovered that physicians agreed on the importance of deprescribing, but commonly reported barriers to doing so, with one participant describing it as feeling like “swimming against the tide.” The clinicians also offered some solutions that could potentially empower them to deprescribe medications more often.

For more on the obstacles to deprescribing and the potential fixes, read our newsroom article summarizing the study and see the infographic below.