Seniors need support to discontinue inappropriate use of sleeping pills, shares Barbara Farrell, PharmD
09/05/2024
With over 20 years of experience in Bruyère’s Geriatric Day Hospital, Barbara Farrell, PharmD shares her experience as a pharmacist and researcher, working to help older adults with deprescribing – the process of reducing or eliminating medications that are no longer needed.
She explains in a recent Maisonneuve article that sedatives are prescribed as short-term or quick fixes to immediate problems, such as when a senior patient is hospitalized after a fall or medical emergency, but trouble occurs when there is no guidance for coming back off them.
Her work explores how older adults end up on multiple medications and how some of these may have negative impacts to health through their interactions or are no longer beneficial but continue to be prescribed past when they are really needed.
More about Farrell’s world-renowned research, guidelines, and educational content in deprescribing and polypharmacy guidelines can be found on deprescribing.org.