3 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Polypharmacy, regular use of 5+ prescribed medications, is common among older adults and potentially harmful. Patients differ in their concern about medications, comfort in raising questions about them, and trust and confidence in physician judgment. This pilot observational research will determine older adults' readiness to "deprescribe," that is, stop prescribed medications under physician guidance.
The Shared Decision Making about Medication Use for People with Multiple Health Problems study will assess the feasibility and acceptability of a deprescribing educational intervention in primary care for patients with mild cognitive impairment or dementia and/or multiple chronic conditions (MCC), the patients' care partners, clinicians, and medical assistants. The intervention consists of the following strategies: 1) a patient/caregiver component focused on education and activation about deprescribing, and 2) a clinician component focused on increasing clinician awareness about options and processes for deprescribing in the MCI/dementia and/or MCC population. Clinicians will each be asked to participate in a single, 15-minute educational session on deprescribing, and medical residents will receive a 45-minute lecture. Patients, caregivers, clinicians, and medical assistants will participate in a single one-on-one debriefing interview.
Older patients using many prescription drugs (hyperpolypharmacy) may be at increased risk of adverse drug effects. This randomized controlled trial tested the effectiveness and safety of a quality intervention intended to reduce hyperpolypharmacy. The study was set at Kaiser Permanente Northern California, an integrated health system with multiple pre-existing deprescribing workflows. Eligible patients were aged ≥76 years using ≥10 prescription medications. The intervention included physician-pharmacist collaborative drug therapy management, standard-of-care practice recommendations, shared decision-making, and deprescribing protocols administered by telephone over multiple cycles for a maximum of 180 days after allocation. A priori primary effectiveness endpoints included change in the number of medications and in the prevalence of geriatric syndrome from 181-365 days after allocation. Second endpoints included utilization and adverse drug withdrawal effects. Information was obtained from the electronic health record.