Polypharmacy and deprescribing

Polypharmacy is a common issue in clinical practice, with 20% of adults given ≥5 regular medications. It particularly impacts elderly individuals and those with multiple morbidities, and is worsened by single-disease, guideline-driven prescribing and service pressures. Although sometimes appropriate, it can also be problematic, associated with a range of adverse outcomes including hazardous prescribing, excess treatment burden, poor quality of life, higher health service use, and increased morbidity and mortality. Polypharmacy management is complex because of the presence of multiple problems, competing priorities and clinical uncertainty. The mainstay of management is currently medication review, which should be holistic and patient centred, and employ shared decision-making. Key elements include addressing unnecessary prescribing, ineffective prescribing, drug safety and cost-effectiveness. Deprescribing is a core means of reducing polypharmacy, although there are several important barriers to its delivery, including a weak evidence base. In the longer term, preventing inappropriate polypharmacy requires a significant shift in prescribing culture, and is likely to take considerable time to achieve.