Reducing patient and planetary harms from high anticholinergic burden medication
Article notes prescribing medications with a high anticholinergic (AC) burden carries significant risk for patients, particularly older people, & adverse outcomes that result also incur substantial carbon & planetary burdens, which might be mitigated by deprescribing AC drugs.
Source:
British Medical Journal
SPS commentary:
The authors point out that prescribing contributes 20% of NHS’s carbon footprint because of carbon costs of manufacture, packaging, distribution, and disposal. They add that reducing medications of questionable clinical benefit to the patient is one way to reduce the health system’s planetary footprint. Direct emissions from anticholinergic prescribing are unquantified, but they suggest the adverse clinical outcomes of high anticholinergic burden may also add to the carbon burden of care owing to increased healthcare usage.