ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2023
Emotional barriers and facilitators of deprescribing for older adults with cancer and polypharmacy: a qualitative study.
Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05046171 (Decreasing Polypharmacy in Older Adults With Curable Cancers), which is not on this map. Cited by 5 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Decreasing Polypharmacy in Older Adults With Curable Cancers: a Pilot Cluster-randomized Trial
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 3 citations in OpenAlex.
- Deprescribing decisions in palliative care: a qualitative meta-synthesis of multi-stakeholder experiences and influencing factors.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Latent class patterns of medication attitudes and their correlates among older adults in the United States.BMC geriatrics · 2026Article
- Barriers and facilitators of deprescribing for older adults with cancer and polypharmacy.Journal of geriatric oncology · 2026Article
- How do pharmacists navigate clinical uncertainty when reviewing polypharmacy? A critical literature review.BMC primary care · 2025Review
- The role of U.S. pharmacists in deprescribing: Recommendations based on a systematic literature review of qualitative studies.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeTo describe emotional barriers and facilitators to deprescribing (the planned reduction or discontinuation of medications) in older adults with cancer and polypharmacy.
methodsVirtual focus groups were conducted over Zoom with 5 key informant groups: oncologists, oncology nurses, primary care physicians, pharmacists, and patients. All groups were video- and audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Focus group transcripts were analyzed using inductive content analysis, and open coding was performed by two coders. A codebook was generated based on the initial round of open coding and updated throughout the analytic process. Codes and themes were discussed for each transcript until consensus was reached. Emotion coding (identifying text segments expressing emotion, naming the emotion, and assigning a label of positive or negative) was performed by both coders to validate the open coding findings.
resultsAll groups agreed that polypharmacy is a significant problem. For clinicians, emotional barriers to deprescribing include fear of moral judgment from patients and colleagues, frustration toward patients, and feelings of incompetence. Oncologists and patients expressed ambivalence about deprescribing due to role expectations that physicians "heal with med[ication]s." Emotional facilitators of deprescribing included the involvement of pharmacists, who were perceived to be neutral, discerning experts. Pharmacists described emotionally aware communication strategies when discussing deprescribing with other clinicians and expressed increased awareness of patient context.
conclusionDeprescribing can elicit strong and predominantly negative emotions among clinicians and patients which could inhibit deprescribing interventions. The involvement of pharmacists in deprescribing interventions could mitigate these emotional barriers.
trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05046171 . Date of registration: September 16, 2021.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.