Consumer Health Resources: Polypharmacy and Deprescribing
NOTE:
Health Sciences Librarians do not provide medical advice or recommend healthcare practitioners. Patients should discuss their health situation with their healthcare providers.
Definition of Polypharmacy and Deprescribing
Polypharmacy refers to the concurrent use of numerous prescription drugs, or to the use of prescription drugs that are not medically essential. Polypharmacy may increase an individual's risk for health complications and drug side effects.
Deprescribing is the process of evaluating one's prescription drug intake in order to potentially reduce use and minimize risk.
For other information about drugs, medication and supplements, see the Drugs, Medication and Supplements tab.
Polypharmacy and Deprescribing Resources
- UB Team AliceThe mission of UB's Team Alice is to protect older adults from medication-related harm. Their work is inspired by the tragic death of Alice Brennan due to medication errors.
- Team Alice VideosThe three embedded videos below are from the Team Alice YouTube site. Visit the site to subscribe to future videos.
- Medication Safety: How Alice's Story Can Help Protect Older AdultsUB Team Alice initiative now partnered with the National Council on Aging (NCOA) to spread the message of protecting older adults from medication-related harm.
- Medications & Older AdultsHealthinAging.org provides medication safety information for seniors, including how medications work differently in older adult, medications to avoid or use with caution, alternative remedies and cautions, and what older adults can do to help avoid medications that might do them harm.
- Optimizing Medication UseContains resources and useful links for reducing or stopping medications that are unhelpful or no longer necessary.
Research Articles
For assistance locating or accessing a research article, please contact a reference librarian at askhsl@buffalo.edu.
- Should You Still Be Taking That Medicine?Loria, K. (2018, November 12). Should you still be taking that medicine? Consumer Reports. Retrieved from https://www.consumerreports.org/prescription-drugs/should-you-still-be-taking-that-medicine/.
This article from Consumer Reports discusses the duration of prescription drug use and the risks associated with maintaining a prescription for longer than is recommended. The article finds that up to 46% of patients remain on particular prescriptions for longer than is recommended as safe or beneficial. - Reducing Inappropriate Polypharmacy: The Process of DeprescribingScott, I. A., Hilmer, S. N., Reeve, E., Potter, K., Couteur, D. L., Rigby, D., . . . Martin, J. H. (2015). Reducing inappropriate polypharmacy: The process of deprescribing. JAMA Internal Medicine, 175(5), 827-834. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2015.0324
This article from JAMA introduces polypharmacy and its risks, and discusses the efficacy of deprescribing. The article also outlines a five-step protocol for reducing prescription drug use. - Prevalence of Prescription Medications With Depression as a Potential Adverse Effect Among Adults in the United StatesQato, D. M., Ozenberger, K., & Olfson, M. (2018). Prevalence of prescription medications with depression as a potential adverse effect among adults in the united states. JAMA, 319(22), 2289-2298. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.6741
This study looks at depression as a side effect of prescription drug use, and found an association between polypharmacy and depression in adults.