TY  - JOUR
T1  - REconsidering medication appropriateness for patients late in life
AU  - Holmes HM, Hayley D, Alexander G, Sachs GA
Y1  - 2006/03/27
N1  - 10.1001/archinte.166.6.605
JO  - Archives of Internal Medicine
SP  - 605
EP  - 609
VL  - 166
IS  - 6
N2  - 
Providing guideline-adherent care for many medical conditions increasingly means the addition of more medications to reach disease-specific targets.1 When might it be best to withhold or discontinue medications that are otherwise appropriate on the basis of guidelines? Receiving facsimiles from the pharmacy serving a local nursing home encouraging us to prescribe statins for residents there symbolizes the issues. Most of these patients had a limited life expectancy, were older than 90 years, or had advanced dementia. Similar situations occur in patients with functional impairments, frailty, or diseases like emphysema, congestive heart failure, or coronary artery disease in their advanced stages, for whom starting or continuing many recommended drugs does not seem the best way to optimize care.

SN  - 0003-9926
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archinte.166.6.605
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.166.6.605
ER  -