Deprescription: when health comes from taking fewer medications

Maria Lluïsa Soto starts the weekend organizing her medication.

Every Saturday, after breakfast, she sits at the table in the living room with her husband, opens the pillbox and begins to compose a mosaic of shapes, colors and textures with the drugs that she will take for the next seven days.

“In the morning boxes I put enalapril for blood pressure;

Adiro and bisoprolol for the heart;

and omeprazole for the stomach.

For the night, temazepam to sleep.

And for knee or lower back pain, depending on the day, paracetamol and if I'm worse, Nolotil”, she explains.

Like this 74-year-old patient, almost one in 10 Spaniards takes five or more medications a day, a proportion that has not stopped growing in recent years and tripled between 2005 and 2015, according to the largest study published to date.

The large polymedicated, those who take 10 or more drugs, multiplied by 10 in those years and are now 1% of the population, a percentage that is higher among women and increases with age.

An increase that is not always justified and can even be harmful.

“Taking more drugs does not always improve health, on the contrary.

It is something that has been associated with a deterioration in functionality and quality of life, and a worse self-perception of health.

There are studies that show an association with higher mortality.

With the same pathology, the most medicated patients die earlier than those who are less medicated”, says José Ignacio de Juan, family doctor and researcher at the University of Malaga.

Deprescription, the process to abandon some treatments always under medical supervision, has become one of the priorities of the health system in the last decade.

"The greater the number of drugs, the greater the risk of side effects, of interactions and worse adherence to those that are really necessary," summarizes Natalia López Pareja in her consultation at the Passeig Maragall primary care center in Barcelona, ​​where this morning she attends to Soto.

The pillboxes of polymedicated patients experience a flood effect over time, the experts agree.

Drugs prescribed one day for a specific problem remain in the prescription for years.

From the consultations to several specialists, or to the emergency service, they come out with treatments that are sometimes duplicated with others that the patient is already taking.

Dr. Natalia López Pareja, is your consultation. Massimiliano Minocri

“This is why we like to talk about revision more, because it has a more global focus.

See what the patient is taking and adjust it to his needs.

Often what is convenient is to deprescribe a drug, but in others it is a matter of adjusting the dose, changing it or even adding it.

It is a process that must be done hand in hand with the patient and that is why the family doctor is the most indicated.

He is the one who knows him best and with whom he has a relationship of greatest trust", explains Ester Amado, a referent of the Barcelona Pharmacy of the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), which manages the vast majority of the primary care centers of the Catalan capital.

The excessive use of benzodiazepines is one of the most recurrent examples.

Soto began taking them years ago because "some family problems" did not allow her to rest well, although she later abandoned them with the support of her doctor.

"Now she has needed them again, but the goal is for consumption to be occasional," explains Natalia López Pareja.

The use of benzodiazepines is usually indicated for periods of 8 to 12 weeks, but it often becomes chronic and is associated with impaired functionality and an increased risk of falls, among other drawbacks.

Antidepressants are another of the treatments whose abandonment is often discussed by family doctors.

“They were prescribed to me in the hospital when I had breast cancer.

But I felt good and lively, so we discussed it with Natalia and I stopped taking them”, says Maria Lluïsa Soto.

Mara Sempere is a member of the drug use working group of the Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (Semfyc).

“The range of treatments that can be included in a deprescription process is wide.

In chronic diseases such as diabetes or cholesterol, for example, the therapeutic objective is not the same in a 50-year-old and otherwise healthy person as in someone older.

A medication that could be indicated at one age may not be at another.

And there is also new scientific evidence showing less effectiveness or a higher risk of side effects.

All of this requires an overhaul,” she states.

Antipsychotics in older people are also often in focus.

María Carmen González López, a doctor of Pharmacy who works in the primary care network of the Almería health district, studied its use and concluded that in the vast majority of cases it was not correct.

“We saw that more than 80% of the patients received inadequate doses and that 75% continued the treatment for more than six months.

The clinical guidelines say that they should be taken in lower doses and for shorter periods of time.

They are drugs that have serious side effects, including death and strokes, ”she argues.

Dr. Natalia López Pareja shows the medication plan to Maria Lluisa Soto.

Massimiliano Minocri

There are several reasons that experts believe contribute to overmedication.

“This often highlights system gaps or unmet patient needs.

With antipsychotics, treatments are prolonged for fear of episodes of agitation in patients with dementia, but often the family does not have the services they need within their reach.

We also see patients who take anti-inflammatories inappropriately, who would need a gradual reduction in opioid doses, or who take proton pump inhibitors [such as omeprazole] chronically when not needed.

All this requires time, listening to the patient and establishing a relationship of trust with him.

But then you find that you have to serve 45 people in one morning”, laments Mara Sempere.

José Ignacio de Juan also points to cultural and social reasons: "There is a pressure and tendency to think that the doctor's response is more complete if it includes a drug, that more is better and that this way a problem is solved more quickly than Sometimes it requires other solutions or a different way of dealing with it.”

The doctors consulted agree on the need to "strengthen and value the role of nursing, since the doctor is the one who prescribes and deprescribes, but nursing has an essential role in patient follow-up."

The deprescription process requires a joint effort by the primary care teams that involves the patient.

“Although sometimes they are the ones who take the initiative, it is more frequent that they have some reluctance when the doctor proposes it.

They think that they are doing well and why stop taking it, to see if what you want is to save at their expense.

This is why trust is important and having time to explain the reasons, the risks of taking an unnecessary medication and the benefits of stopping doing it, "adds De Juan.

“If you inform the patient, justify the decision and address their doubts, the patient usually reacts very well.

Deprescription is a joint process that gives good results and ends up being a source of satisfaction for him, his family and the entire primary care team”, says Natalia López Pareja.

Maria Lluïsa Soto looks at her and nods her head from the other side of the table.

“He has been my doctor for almost 20 years.

In this time many things have happened and she has always been here.

I know that she cares about my health”, she concludes with a smile.