Abstract

Research in the clinical practice of medicine is focused on how, when, and why caregivers should start new medications in patients. Although prescribing medications is appropriate for many clinical conditions, this may lead to polypharmacy. For instance, many patients have multiple conditions, including hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, all of which require medications. Polypharmacy refers to the use of multiple concurrent medications, typically five or more per day (1). The term also describes the use of inappropriate medications, or more medications than clinically indicated (1). Therefore, it is surprising that there is a paucity of studies that address how and when these medications should be stopped. This paradox underlies the increasingly appreciated challenge of polypharmacy. We argue that there is a need to emphasize the new generation of data that demonstrate improved outcomes when a patient stops a medication to decrease polypharmacy.

Battistella M, Ng P

Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology

Published 2020

Research Project: STOP Med-HD

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