De-prescribing refers to a structured, supervised process of stopping medications that are no longer necessary or beneficial. Ask your doctor the following questions:
-
What is this medication for? Do I still need it?
-
What would happen if I stopped it? Is there a safe way to stop?
Why you should know this
A supervised process of stopping medications that are no longer needed is something everyone should know about
Oh you would be surprised. I’ll ask my patients what meds they’re on and they’ll tell me they take a lot but they don’t know the names. I’ll ask if they can tell me any of the medical conditions they take meds for and they can’t. A surprisingly large amount of people are shockingly willfully ignorant about their own medical problems (and then wonder why they only get worse)