Rewriting the script on polypharmacy

Today in the office, a 64-year-old man complained of lightheadedness and fatigue and told me his blood pressure on home monitoring was consistently around 105/50 mm Hg. In addition to taking 3 antihypertensive medications, I discovered he had been prescribed doxazosin—an alpha blocker, which also lowers blood pressure—for symptoms of benign prostatic hypertrophy. It was an easy decision to stop one of his 3 antihypertensive medications.

I’m certain that you, too, have stories of successful deprescribing. Let’s remain alert to the problem of polypharmacy, keep meticulous medication lists, and deprescribe whenever it makes good sense. Doing so is essential to our roles as family physicians.