{"id":1870,"date":"2023-12-21T15:07:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T15:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/?p=1870"},"modified":"2024-01-11T19:44:57","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T19:44:57","slug":"the-safe-disposal-of-medications-in-maryland-a-small-glitch-in-deprescribing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.pharmacy.umaryland.edu\/insidesop\/2023\/12\/21\/the-safe-disposal-of-medications-in-maryland-a-small-glitch-in-deprescribing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Safe Disposal of Medications in Maryland: A Small Glitch in Deprescribing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written By:<\/strong> Rudi Lamy, MLS, MAS, consultant to the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging<\/p>\n

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Has one or more of your prescriptions been deprescribed?<\/p>\n

Do you have expired or \u201cleftover\u201d medications in your house?<\/p>\n

Have you been the caregiver for someone who is now in an assisted living, memory care, or hospice facility but still have their medicines at your home?<\/p>\n

If you answered yes to any of these questions, read on to learn more about how to dispose of them safely.<\/p>\n

In this blog post, I will discuss deprescribing, the process of weaning off a medication that is no longer needed. Although the process of prescribing medicine and medication adherence is important as we age, deprescribing can be just as important for positive health outcomes.<\/p>\n

Here is a more thorough description of deprescribing from an article in the journal American Family Physician<\/em>:<\/p>\n

“Monitoring patients’ active medication lists and deprescribing any unnecessary medications are recommended to reduce pill burden, the risks of adverse drug events, and financial hardship. Physicians should view deprescribing as a therapeutic intervention similar to initiating clinically appropriate therapy. When deprescribing, physicians should consider patient\/caregiver perspectives on goals of therapy, including views on medications and chronic conditions and preferences and priorities regarding prescribing to slow disease progression, prevent health decline, and address symptoms. Point-of-care tools can aid physicians in deprescribing and help patients understand the need to decrease medication burden to reduce the risks of polypharmacy.” 1<\/sup><\/p>\n

While at the library recently, I saw a flyer from the Maryland Department of Health on medication safety and learned two tips. First, safe storage of medications means not <\/strong>comingling them in your medicine cabinet or leaving them in a place where children or pets could get into them. They should be in a safe and secure location.<\/p>\n

Second, you should dispose of expired and unused medications in drug drop boxes.<\/p>\n