Deprescribing of preventive medications in palliative care patients living with multiple long-term conditions in their final 12 months of life: A retrospective cohort Clinical Practice Research Datalink study.

Abstract

To investigate the patterns and trends associated with deprescribing of preventive medications in the final 12 months of life in palliative patients living with multiple long-term conditions using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. All patients with a medcode/readcode for palliative care assigned to their profile with a medcode/readcode for a cardiometabolic condition. All patients were on therapeutic interventions for their condition/s. the trends of medication deprescribing of preventive medications in the final twelve months of life in those known to be end-of-life. Preventive medication deprescribing was only observed in a very small cohort of patients. The findings were consistent across all six medication groups tested. Deprescribing was observed in a range of 2-60 patients with the most deprescribing efforts being associated with antihypertensive medications (n = 177), and antiplatelet medications (n = 70), and antihyperglycaemic medications (n = 10). Deprescribing practices are not commonplace in patients with a known end-of-life designation with low patient numbers (range 2-60) undergoing the intervention, thus potentially reducing the quality of life in these patients final twelve months of life. CPRD ID: #22_002253, linkage request 2914.