News | Polypharmacy

News

More than 1,000 patients stopped taking antidepressants after introduction of local deprescribing guidelines

Exclusive: Guidelines published in 2021 have helped Sunderland Clinical Commissioning Group move from having the fifth highest antidepressant prescribing rate in the country to the eighth highest.…

Published: 28 March 2022

News

NHS England appoints first clinical director for prescribing

Tony Avery, professor of primary healthcare at the University of Nottingham, and his team developed the PINCER project to tackle hazardous prescribing.…

Published: 18 March 2022

News

NHS Scotland tenders for £66m pharmacogenomics decision support service

Exclusive: The service will aim to use genomic data to improve the management of polypharmacy in primary and secondary care.…

Published: 1 March 2022

News

Prescribers should warn patients about dependence before starting them on high-risk drugs, says NICE

In its first guideline on medicines that can cause dependence or withdrawal symptoms, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has recommended that prescribers warn patients about these risks and offer alternative treatment options before prescribing.…

Published: 22 October 2021

News

Major review estimates 10% of items dispensed in primary care are overprescribed

A government-commissioned review estimates that 15% of people are taking five or more medicines per day, putting them at increased risk of hospitalisation.…

Published: 22 September 2021

Feature

Antidepressant withdrawal: why has it been ignored for so long? (audio)

This podcast looks at the withdrawal symptoms that many patients experience when coming off antidepressants and what can be done to help.…

Published: 27 August 2021

Opinion

How I reduced opioid prescribing in my GP practice by more than 450,000mme in less than a year

Deborah Hollywood set about creating a toolkit to reduce opioid doses for patients at her practice, with which she has achieved great success.…

Published: 14 July 2021

News

Pharmacist found five drug-related problems per older patient receiving intermediate care, study reveals

The pharmacist in the study identified 494 “clinically relevant” drug-related problems in 91 patients receiving intermediate care.…

Published: 7 May 2021

News

Pharmacist interventions can improve medication safety for older care home residents, study finds

A pioneering study has synthesised evidence of the effectiveness of pharmacist-led interventions to reduce adverse drug events in older people living in care homes.…

Published: 22 April 2021

News

Low-dose steroids almost double risk of cardiovascular disease

Patients treated with glucocorticoids are at increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), research suggests.…

Published: 15 March 2021