“Problematic polypharmacy adds a cost to the healthcare system and diminishes quality care for the patient – and most of this is entirely preventable.”
NHS Health Innovation Network, March 2025
“Problematic polypharmacy adds a cost to the healthcare system and diminishes quality care for the patient – and most of this is entirely preventable.”
Health Innovation Network NHS England, 2024
“Polypharmacy, commonly defined as taking at least five drug treatments, is common in older populations. Although older adults are more likely to have multiple chronic conditions, and guidelines often recommend multiple drug treatments, studies have found that polypharmacy can lead to problems such as adverse drug events, drug–drug interactions, drug treatment non-adherence, cognitive and functional impairment, and increased risk of frailty, disability, falls, hospitalizations, and mortality.”
The BMJ, May 2024
Polypharmacy is a growing concern that requires a multi-faceted approach for effective management. The risks of polypharmacy are significant, but with the right strategies in place, we can mitigate those risks and improve patient outcomes in older adults. This conference will support you to understand the complex issues around problematic polypharmacy and stopping inappropriate medicines safely in older adults. The conference will discuss current issues and trends, support clinicians to identify problematic polypharmacy, develop your skills in leading effective shared decision-making, structured medication reviews, and focus on difficult issues such as discontinuing mental health medications, understanding interactions with herbal and dietary supplements, and exploring strategies for discontinuation syndromes, adverse effects, and tapering.
This conference will enable you to:
Network with colleagues who are working to reduce problematic polypharmacy in older adults
Learn from outstanding practice in addressing polypharmacy
Understand common clinical presentations of polypharmacy
Reflect on lived experience and ensure shared decision-making
Explore best practice in identifying problematic polypharmacy, understanding which patients and which medicines or combinations of medicines present the highest risk, and how the use of polypharmacy prescribing comparators can help
Develop your skills in leading effective shared decision-making structured medication reviews
Identify key strategies for deprescribing mental health medications, including those that can cause dependence and withdrawal
Understand which herbal medicines and dietary supplements can be problematic
Develop your skills in managing medicines that have elevated risk during discontinuation through discontinuation syndromes, managing adverse effects, and tapering
Support people to better understand the medications that they take
Self-assess, reflect, and expand your skills in prescribing practice whilst understanding your limits of practice
Support CPD professional development and act as revalidation evidence. This course provides 5 hours of training for CPD, subject to peer group approval for revalidation purposes.
