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<article xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" dtd-version="1.0" article-type="family-medicine" lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">JOHS</journal-id>
<journal-id journal-id-type="nlm-ta">Journ of Health Scien</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Journal of HealthCare Sciences</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="pubmed">Journ of Health Scien</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="ppub">2231-2196</issn>
<issn pub-type="opub">0975-5241</issn>
<publisher>
<publisher-name>Radiance Research Academy</publisher-name>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">498</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">http://dx.doi.org/10.52533/JOHS.2025.51232</article-id>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi-url"/>
<article-categories>
<subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
<subject>Family Medicine</subject>
</subj-group>
</article-categories>
<title-group>
<article-title>Clinical and Ethical Management of Polypharmacy in Older Adults With Limited Life Expectancy
</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Jambi</surname>
<given-names>Hanin Yousif</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Albalawi</surname>
<given-names>Mohammad Ahmad</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Alhazmi</surname>
<given-names>Hatim Khalid</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Alruwaithi</surname>
<given-names>Ziad Abdulmoti</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Albariqi</surname>
<given-names>Hassan Mohammed</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>Alzahrani</surname>
<given-names>Anas Hassan</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>AL-Naim</surname>
<given-names>Lama</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author">
<name>
<surname>AlMotawa</surname>
<given-names>Mashahed Yousif</given-names>
</name>
</contrib>
</contrib-group>
<pub-date pub-type="ppub">
<day>31</day>
<month>12</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>5</volume>
<issue>12</issue>
<fpage>964</fpage>
<lpage>969</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>This article is copyright of Popeye Publishing, 2009</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2009</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">
<license-p>This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) Licence. You may share and adapt the material, but must give appropriate credit to the source, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made.</license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<abstract>
<p>Polypharmacy is a common and complex issue among older adults with limited life expectancy, often resulting in increased treatment burden, adverse drug events, and diminished quality of life. As life expectancy shortens, the risk–benefit profile of many medications changes significantly. Drugs initially prescribed for long-term prevention may lose relevance or cause harm when functional decline and symptom burden become dominant concerns. Clinical management must shift from disease-centered prescribing to individualized approaches that prioritize comfort, safety, and the patient__ampersandsign#39;s personal goals. Deprescribing becomes a central strategy, requiring careful evaluation of each medication’s current utility, potential for harm, and alignment with patient values. Ethical challenges arise when discontinuing medications, especially when patients or caregivers associate ongoing treatment with hope or clinical effort. Balancing autonomy with professional responsibility demands transparent, compassionate communication and a strong understanding of ethical principles such as beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. Clinicians must also navigate systemic barriers, including fragmented care, lack of deprescribing guidelines tailored to end-of-life contexts, and limited training in shared decision-making. Personalized medication management benefits from multidisciplinary input and structured tools that incorporate clinical judgment with patient-specific data. Functional assessments, time-to-benefit analysis, and regular medication reviews help identify therapies that can be safely withdrawn. Incorporating deprescribing protocols into transitional care and long-term care planning reduces polypharmacy-related complications. Addressing polypharmacy in this population requires a coordinated, values-based approach that respects the complexity of aging, the limitations of pharmacotherapy, and the importance of patient-centered care.
</p>
</abstract>
<kwd-group>
<kwd>Polypharmacy</kwd>
<kwd> deprescribing</kwd>
<kwd> older adults</kwd>
<kwd> end-of-life care</kwd>
<kwd> ethical decision-making</kwd>
</kwd-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
</article>