“I hate taking tablets.”
“Do I need to take all these tablets?”
“I don’t want to start this and be on this for the rest of my life!“
“All my doctors do is give me more tablets!”
There is an urban myth out there that doctors love prescribing pills or that we get some sort of incentive to prescribe more pills. We really, really don’t.
What we want is for patients to be healthy. It’s the whole reason we do this job.
“Medication Reconciliation” is a term for when a doctor and/or a pharmacist review all of a patient’s medications to prevent errors or interactions. This is really important if a patients has been in hospital, attending multiple doctors or multiple clinics. That’s one time that medications may be deprescribed.
Deprescribing supplements is something that many doctors do regularly. I definitely do it. Many patients are unnecessary amounts of supplements.
But deprescribing medications because a health condition has now been controlled WITHOUT medication (evidence-based lifestyle changes) and you don’t need it anymore? Ah, that one is my favourite! I love reducing doses of medication for patients as they improve.
It’s really important to highlight because patients sometimes don’t want to start blood pressure tablets or statins or medications for new Type 2 diabetes: “I don’t want to be on tablets for the rest of my life.” For some patients, that may be the story, because of genetics or another cause outside their control. But for some other patients for whom there are factors within their control to change – well, deprescribing later is possible. And it’s important to highlight that as one of the patient’s goals of care!
Always, always, ALWAYS talk to your pharmacist or doctor before suddenly stopping any prescribed medication! It’s important to talk about why you want to stop (side effects, can’t remember to take, isn’t working for you anymore) and make a plan to change your medications safely. Many medications have to be stopped slowly.
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