Low-value Care

Seniors are being overmedicated, as momentum grows to de-prescribe patients

Abstract: The Lown Institute, a Brookline nonprofit, called over-prescribing of seniors an epidemic in a report last April. Over the last decade, those 65 and older have been hospitalized for serious drug side effects about 2 million times, the group said. “The bottom line is, they know how to prescribe … They don’t know how to de-prescribe,” said Shannon Brownlee, the Lown Institute’s senior vice president, addressing the issue of having a patient wean off a drug.

Publication: Worcester Business Journal

Date Published: March 23, 2020

Author(s): Grant Welker

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To eliminate medication overload, serious cultural, educational, and policy changes are needed. This action plan offers recommendations for policymakers, health care institutions, clinicians, and patients across five key categories to reduce harm from multiple medication use. Suggested Citation: Eliminating medication overload: A national action plan. Working Group on Medication Overload. Brookline, MA: The Lown Institute, 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46241/LI.YLBW4885

Pharmaceutical marketing is a significant factor in the growing public health crisis of medication overload, which puts millions of older adults at risk of preventable harm and premature death. This issue brief provides recommendations to reduce pharmaceutical industry influence by limiting pharma sales rep visits to clinicians and direct-to-consumer advertising.

This issue brief provides recommendations for clinical practice guidelines and electronic health records that would give clinicians the information they need to appropriately prescribe and deprescribe.