Stop and think or think and stop?

摘要

The editorial by Hall et al,1 was a brief but fairly comprehensive overview of an area relevant to all GPs. The assessment of whether to continue previously prescribed medication need not, of course, be confined to terminal cancer sufferers. Motor Neurone Disease, end-stage organ failure, and advanced dementia are other conditions that spring to mind. My own feeling is that in current practice we probably leave such decisions until they are not decisions at all but rather when swallowing becomes an issue or other problems/side effects occur.