TY - JOUR T1 - ‘Drugs to avoid’: can we improve prescribing appropriateness? JF - Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin JO - Drug Ther Bull SP - 162 LP - 162 DO - 10.1136/dtb.2021.000029 VL - 59 IS - 11 AU - Barbara Mintzes AU - Agnes Vitry Y1 - 2021/11/01 UR - http://dtb.bmj.com/content/59/11/162.abstract N2 - Many initiatives to guide prescribing focus only on ‘drugs to use’ and not those to avoid. These include treatment guidelines, formularies, and national and regional lists of reimbursed drugs. The aim is to guide clinicians towards the most effective treatments and the most cost-effective of equivalent alternatives. However, this guidance can be incomplete, distorted by commercial interests1 and does not always adequately address harmful outcomes of medicines use. Criteria targeting inappropriate use also often focus on single drug classes such as opioids or specific demographics such as older patients for the Beers and STOPP/START criteria.The French independent drug bulletin Prescrire has developed a unique initiative aiming to improve prescribing appropriateness: an annual list of ‘drugs to avoid’ across all treatment indications and patient populations. These lists are based on Prescrire’s evaluations … ER -