Deprescribing Antidepressants in Older People – Breaking Up Can Be Hard to Do

Every drug review for older people should consider which medicines to continue, but equally important, which medicines can be discontinued. As we age, the balance between potential benefits and potential risks of medications often shifts towards more harm. For example, antidepressants are commonly prescribed in general, but in the older person, they carry specific potential harms. Further, there is data indicating that a substantial proportion of users have no evidence-based indications to continue antidepressants and could be candidates to try stopping treatment. We outline first the imperatives and evidence for deprescribing antidepressants and then finally the practical approaches to deprescribing.