Curie Brief
Turn on cookies to sign in
Signing in saves your progress to your Curie account. We can only do that with cookies on — turn them on to continue.
News
With nearly 1 in 3 Italians over 65 taking more than 10 medications, global health experts are calling for a cultural shift toward deprescribing — the deliberate process of reducing or stopping medications when harms outweigh benefits. At the ISPE 2026 conference in Milan, researchers unveiled new guidelines and methodological frameworks to make deprescribing a routine part of clinical care, emphasizing patient trust, better research tools, and system-level support.
Polypharmacy is a growing crisis — and experts say the answer isn't just better prescribing, it's also better unprescribing. At the 42nd annual ISPE conference in Milan, clinicians and researchers spotlighted deprescribing as a critical, underutilized strategy for improving care in older adults. The core message: if a medication isn't necessary, it's harmful — and that includes dietary supplements.
Deprescribing is defined as the systematic process of identifying and discontinuing medications when potential harms outweigh benefits, factoring in a patient's goals, functioning, life expectancy, and personal values. Experts stressed it's not just about stopping drugs cold turkey — gradual tapering and dose reductions also count as meaningful interventions, a nuance that current research often misses. ISPE released two major documents in 2025 to address methodological gaps, including REMROSE-D — a 23-recommendation guide for conducting rigorous observational deprescribing studies.
By the Numbers:
Why it matters: Deprescribing can reduce drug interactions, adverse events, and healthcare costs — while improving patient quality of life and treatment adherence. But making it routine requires training, dedicated clinical services, patient trust, and aligned reimbursement systems. The field is moving, but systemic change is still needed.
