Related Experiment Videos
Designing Implementable Deprescribing Recommendations: A Qualitative Study of Healthcare Professional Perspectives
Aili V Langford1,2, Shin J Liau3, Sheryn Loh3
1Sydney Pharmacy School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. aili.langford@sydney.edu.au.
Journal of General Internal Medicine
|August 10, 2026
Summary
Healthcare professionals desire clear, comprehensive deprescribing guidelines. Recommendations need higher evidence and specific content for safe medication dose reduction or discontinuation, impacting clinical practice.
Area of Science:
- Clinical Pharmacy
- Evidence-Based Medicine
- Health Services Research
Background:
- Clinical guidelines often lack specific guidance on deprescribing (medication dose reduction or discontinuation).
- Integrating deprescribing recommendations into guidelines can improve their adoption and impact.
Purpose of the Study:
- To understand Australian healthcare professionals' preferences for deprescribing recommendation content, language, and format in clinical guidelines.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 24 doctors, pharmacists, and nurses.
- Thematic framework analysis using the Guideline Language and Format Instrument (GLAFI).
Main Results:
- Participants perceived deprescribing as more complex than prescribing, requiring higher evidentiary thresholds.
- A balance between clarity and comprehensiveness in recommendations was desired.
- Preferences varied on whether deprescribing recommendations should be co-located with prescribing or in a standalone section.
Conclusions:
- The content, language, and format of deprescribing recommendations are crucial for their implementability.
- Deprescribing-specific factors, like operational complexity and risk framing, need to be addressed.
- Findings offer insights for improving future deprescribing guidelines and de-implementation strategies.
Related Concept Videos
01:15Drug Abuse and Addiction: Pharmacological Phenomena
Drug dependence, abuse, and addiction are complex phenomena that can precipitate various abnormal states. Physical dependence refers to a state of pharmacological adaptation to a drug. This adaptation often results in tolerance—a reduced response to the drug after repeated administrations. When the drug use is abruptly stopped, withdrawal symptoms occur due to the body's need to readjust from the pharmacologically induced imbalance. However, tolerance and withdrawal symptoms do not necessarily...
01:30Ethical Dilemmas II
Resolving an ethical dilemma in healthcare involves a systematic approach that considers every aspect of the issue, respecting both the patient's needs and values and the healthcare professional's ethical obligations. Here are potential steps to resolve an ethical dilemma:
01:25Antidepressant Drugs: Overview
Antidepressant drugs are a class of medications primarily used for treating various mood disorders, including major depression, anxiety disorders, and other related conditions. These medicines work by modulating the neurotransmitter balance within the brain, alleviating depressive symptoms. Antidepressants can be broadly categorized into several groups according to their mechanism of action and chemical structure: Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Serotonin-Norepinephrine...
01:15Drug Dosing: Geriatric Patients
Elderly individuals encompass a diverse population with varying degrees of age-related physiological changes. Defining the elderly presents challenges, as the geriatric population is often arbitrarily categorized as individuals older than 65. However, many individuals in this group lead active and healthy lives, with an increasing number surpassing 85 years and falling into the older elderly category. Physiological changes associated with aging impact performance capacity and homeostatic...
01:28Dosage Regimens: Designs and Approaches
Designing a dosage regimen, which refers to the manner of drug administration, is a complex process involving the selection of drug dose, route, and frequency. This process is underpinned by pharmacokinetic parameters derived from tests and population averages. These parameters are then tailored to patient-specific variables such as diagnosis, demographics, and allergy status. Once therapy commences, therapeutic response monitoring is critical and achieved through clinical and physical...
01:20Desensitization and Tachyphylaxis
Tachyphylaxis is described as a rapid decrease in response to a drug after repeated or continuous administration of the same drug dose. It is a phenomenon where the body becomes less responsive to a particular substance or intervention over time, requiring higher doses or stronger interventions to achieve the same effect. It results from adaptive changes in the body's receptors, signaling pathways, or physiological processes that occur in response to prolonged exposure to a stimulus.
Several...
Several...