Attitudes towards deprescribing in geriatric psychiatry: A survey among older psychiatric outpatients

Abstract

Understanding the patient perspective is a significant part of the deprescribing process. This study aimed to explore the attitudes of older patients with psychiatric disorders towards deprescribing. A total of 72 of psychiatric outpatients (68% women; median age 76 years) completed the validated Danish version of the revised Patients' Attitudes Towards Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire. Patients used a median of 8 medications (interquartile range 6‐12), with 88%, 49% and 24% using antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics, respectively. Fifty‐one percent of patients reported an intrinsic desire to stop one of their medications, while 92% would be willing to stop one on their physician’s advice. Seventy‐five percent of patients would be worried about missing out on future benefits following deprescribing and 37% had previous bad deprescribing experiences. Use of ≥8 regular medications was associated with more concerns about stopping medication and greater perceived burden of using medication, while use of antipsychotics was not associated with any differences in rPATD factor scores. It is crucial for health care professionals to be aware of patients' specific concerns and past experiences to promote a patient‐centered deprescribing approach that takes into account the needs and preferences of older patients with psychiatric disorders.

Welcome to Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology 2024

“…As we embark on the new year, we invite you to explore the wealth of knowledge and exciting content our journal offers. In 2023, we published three Special Collections from focused conferences supported by the Nordic Association for the Publication of Basic and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, including Adhesion G‐Protein‐coupled Receptors, 1–10 Transmembrane Transporter Proteins: Catching Transport in Motion 11–19 and Advancing Deprescribing: Learnings from the first International Conference on Deprescribing 20–31 . The second part of the latter Special Collection will appear in the January 2024 issue.…”

Advancing deprescribing: Learnings from the first international conference on deprescribing

“…Four papers provide insights in this area. Lundby et al 18 report their results from the revised Patients' Attitudes Toward Deprescribing (rPATD) questionnaire administered in a geriatric psychiatry setting and describe willingness to deprescribing but also previous bad deprescribing experiences among patients. Pereira et al 19 present their results from the rPATD questionnaire to identify predictors of older community-dwelling patients' willingness to deprescribing, finding that older age and female sex increase the odds of willingness to deprescribing.…”