3 common drugs that should be tapered off and how to do it

An useful article. You know? Usually anti-depressants also should not be withdrawn abruptly. Withdrawal of anti-depressants abruptly may cause anti-depressant discontinuation syndrome or anti-depressant withdrawal syndrome. This could be much more dangerous condition with the psychiatric patients with bipolar affective disorder since it may trigger the manic or hypomanic episode of the bipolar affective disorder. ...

Regarding beta-blockers, I think it depends on the indication. If the indication is rate control, in cases of hyperthyroidism-induced tachycardias, inherent arrhythmias etc, then it really needs to be tapered. But if it is being given as an adjunctive medication to prevent cardiac remodelling, then I don’t see why it should be tapered. Regarding anti-seizure medications, this really needs to be tapered most especially if it had been used for more than two weeks. Unfortunately there are some pra...

Lianne Marie Victoria Laruan Fortunately, there are no patients who have done a follow-up due to abrupt discontinuation of medicine for me. We use anti-convulsants (Gabapentin and Pregabalin) for the treatment of radiculopathy. If we are giving high doses, we usually start at the minimum therapeutic dose for four days before increasing the dose. We also taper off the medication by decreasing a high dose to the min...

This is timely article because just yesterday at a medical outreach I had a patient who abruptly stopped taking his beta blocker medication. He said he did so because he was told to take it every now and then only. He experienced rebound hypertension from this. I had to explain to him the necessity of staying on his medication as it is for maintenance of his high blood pressure. I had to give him the talk about how our blood vessels are pipes and our heart is a pump and that high pressure will d...

There are so many considerations that pharmacists have to face when working with patients. Tapering off dosage to prevent addiction, especially in the case of painkillers, is one of the main issues, but there can be many others.

Do pharmacists choose to keep the same dosage and frequency in order to be protected against the condition recurring? Or do they look into tapering off over time to prevent other issues such as drug-drug interactions or herb-drug interactions that may happen du...

When recommending and prescribing medications to patients, it is also the responsibility of the health care professional to inform and warn the patient of the harmful effects of suddenly stopping their regimen. Though we have little control over patient compliance in the ambulatory setting, it's still very important to advise patients regarding the possible withdrawal effects. Additionally, informing them of the harmful effects may even help with compliance (as there are some patients who te...