POLYPHARMACY IN OLDER PATIENTS: Exploring Deprescribing Strategies

Course overview

Polypharmacy in older adults presents a significant challenge to mobility, cognition, and overall rehabilitation potential-domains central to physical therapy practice. The new webinar, Polypharmacy in Older Patients: Exploring De-Prescribing Strategies, offers physical therapists a critical framework for understanding how medication overload contributes to fall risk, balance deficits, fatigue, and impaired motor learning, all of which can undermine therapeutic progress and safety. This new webinar highlights the physiologic changes of aging that influence how medications interact with neuromuscular and cardiovascular systems, with particular attention to agents like opioids, anticoagulants, and anticholinergics that may affect coordination, alertness, and endurance. Through evidence-based strategies and case-based learning, physical therapists will gain tools to recognize medication-related barriers to mobility and function and collaborate effectively with prescribers to optimize care plans. By integrating deprescribing principles into rehabilitation settings, physical therapists can enhance patient engagement, reduce adverse events, and support safer transitions across levels of care. This course strengthens competencies in interdisciplinary communication, patient-centered planning, and risk mitigation, positioning physical therapists as key advocates for functional independence and quality of life in aging populations.