New Survey to Explore Physicians' Perspectives on Deprescribing Medications for Older Adults

A survey of 750 geriatricians, general internists, and cardiologists in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society investigated physicians' considerations on deprescribing drugs for older adults, reports News-Medical . The researchers sought to define the frequency at which physicians from different specialties said they deprescribed cardiovascular medications in their practices. The issue of interest was why different specialists deprescribed certain drugs, and the problems they encountered in doing so. More than 80 percent of responding physicians said they had recently considered deprescribing a cardiovascular drug, most often due to adverse drug reactions. Obstacles were common across specialities, with interference with another physician's treatment plan and users' hesitancy to stop taking prescribed medications among them. Seventy-three percent of geriatricians said they might deprescribe a drug that was not expected to benefit persons with a limited life expectancy, versus 37 percent of general internists and 14 percent of cardiologists. Meanwhile, 26 percent of geriatricians cited concerns about cognition as a rationale for deprescribing, compared to 13 percent of general internists and 9 percent of cardiologists. The researchers concluded that all the specialists often weigh deprescribing cardiovascular medications, and successful deprescribing requires better communication between healthcare providers and the people they treat.