Pomegranate Health: Drug Interactions and Deprescribing

This episode of Pomegranate Health​ examines some of the systems that have led to current rates of polypharmacy, and some strategies for deprescribing. ​Also discussed is Professor Richard Day’s recent review of drug interactions from the Internal Medicine Journal, and combinations physicians should be most concerned about are highlighted.

Adverse drug events cause about five per cent of admissions to a public hospital, although some studies suggest the figure could be as high as 15 per cent. That makes at least half a million patients in Australia and 55,000 in New Zealand every year.

Drug-drug interactions make up about a fifth of these adverse events. They have become more frequent over the decades, as more medications reach the market. More than half of people over the age of 75 are on five or more prescriptions—a state referred to as polypharmacy.

Listen to Drug Interactions and Deprescribing by downloading or streaming on iTunes or  Android, or listen online.  

Claim CPD credits for listening to Pomegranate through MyCPD.