European journal of clinical pharmacology
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Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. · Jul 2019
Balancing medication use in nursing home residents with life-limiting disease.
Balancing medications that are needed and beneficial and avoiding medications that may be harmful is important to prevent drug-related problems, and improve quality of life. The aim of this study is to describe medication use, the prevalence of deprescribing of medications suitable for deprescribing, and the prevalence of new initiation of potentially inappropriate medications (PIMs) in nursing home (NH) residents with life-limiting disease in Flanders. ⋯ Medication use remained high at the end of life for NH residents with life-limiting disease, and deprescribing was limited. However, in the subgroup of 76 residents for whom deprescribing was observed, less new PIMs were initiated.
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Eur. J. Clin. Pharmacol. · Jul 2019
Discontinuation of therapy among COPD patients who experience an improvement in exacerbation status.
A subset of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience a decrease in exacerbation frequency, leading to a diminished need for treatment with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS). We investigated prescribing and discontinuation patterns of long-acting bronchodilators and ICS in COPD patients according to exacerbation frequency. ⋯ The extensive use of ICS and the relatively high persistence to ICS-containing regimens in individuals who had a decrease in exacerbation occurrence highlight a need for the development and implementation of de-escalation strategies in clinical practice.