deprescribing

Sometimes less medicine may be the right medicine.

You may have been taking psychiatric medication for years and find yourself wondering: Do I still need this? Is it still helping? Could I take less?

Others come to me taking several medications, experiencing unwanted effects, or simply wanting to better understand why each medication is part of their treatment.

Deprescribing is the thoughtful, medically supervised process of reducing or discontinuing medication when doing so is appropriate. It is not anti-medication, and the goal is not necessarily to stop medication altogether. The goal is to determine what continues to be useful, what may no longer be needed, and how any changes can be approached as carefully and safely as possible.

My Approach

Deprescribing is more than writing a tapering schedule.

Before making changes, we’ll look carefully at your psychiatric and medical history, how long you’ve taken the medication, previous attempts to reduce it, other medications and supplements, current life circumstances, available supports, and your reasons for wanting a change.

When we decide together that reducing a medication is appropriate, the pace is individualized. We’ll monitor both physical and emotional responses and adjust the plan when needed rather than forcing the process to follow a predetermined timetable.

We’ll also pay attention to what medication may have been helping you manage. Psychotherapy, sleep, nutrition, movement, stress regulation, relationships, and other supports may become especially important during a taper.

And sometimes our careful review may lead us to decide that continuing a medication, or changing the plan, is the better choice.

I’m here to walk beside you, every step of the way.