Deprescribing campaign focuses on environmental gains

A campaign to boost deprescribing awareness is focusing on both the personal and environmental benefits of withdrawing inappropriate medications.
 
The MedsAware Deprescribing Action Week, run by Advanced Pharmacy Australia (AdPha) and backed by the RACGP through the Australian Deprescribing Network, encourages conversations between patients, carers and health professionals about the risks of polypharmacy.
 
Now in its third year, the campaign runs from 10–16 March in 2025 under the theme ‘empowering safe and sustainable medicine use’.
 
Australian Deprescribing Network Chair Emily Reeve said deprescribing is an essential part of achieving quality use of medicines.
 
‘Deprescribing has broad reaching benefits for individuals and it’s great that this year we can also discuss a future where our health and the health of our planet go hand in hand,’ she said.
 
Pharmaceuticals are one of the main sources of emissions linked to healthcare in Australia, accounting for around 20% of the sector’s carbon footprint according to analysis published The Lancet Planetary Health in 2018.
 
The MedsAware campaign advocates for updated government purchasing practices that consider the carbon footprint of medicines, fluids and medical devices, and urges for sustainability to be factored into medicine evaluations.
 
It also calls for updated prescribing clinical guidelines that weigh sustainability alongside safety, quality and efficacy, as well as more transparency in measuring pharmaceutical emissions.
 
The Silver Book, an RACGP clinical resource aimed at GPs treating older people, describes deprescribing as ‘the process of withdrawal of an inappropriate medication, supervised by a healthcare professional, with the goal of managing polypharmacy and improving outcomes’.
 
Polypharmacy is usually defined as the use of five or more regular medicines. 
 
The Silver Book authors also emphasised that deprescribing should be considered ‘at all times as part of good prescribing continuum, and not just at the end-of-life stage’.
 
‘It should be undertaken with the assistance of a multidisciplinary care team that may involve GPs, pharmacists, residential aged care facility staff, registered nurses, other specialist medical practitioners, and allied health professionals,’ they wrote.
 
However, they also noted that research and evidence in deprescribing is lacking, and that it needs to be a research priority for general practice and residential aged care facilities.
 
Research cited by the MedsAware campaign indicates nine in 10 residential aged care facility residents take at least five medicines every day, with 65% taking more than 10. 
 
Meanwhile, a Monash University-led study published last year found 71% of clinical practice guidelines do not contain any advice on deprescribing. 
 
Published in the British Medical Journal, it analysed guidelines from Europe, North America, Australia, Asia and Africa over a decade.
 
It also indicated that many of the guidelines with deprescribing recommendations did not include detailed information on the process. 
 
‘Deprescribing recommendations are increasingly being incorporated into guidelines, however, many guidelines do not contain clear and actionable recommendations on how to deprescribe which may limit effective implementation in clinical practice,’ the authors wrote.
 
For further information on this year’s campaign, see the MedsAware website.
 
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