Sefap promotes identifying prescription cascades to improve patient safety

The Spanish Society of Primary Care Pharmacists (Sefap) is advocating for the identification of prescription cascades as a key clinical safety tool in primary care. This initiative aims to prevent healthcare systems from misinterpreting secondary symptoms as new conditions, which leads to the unnecessary addition of second medications. Such chains increase polypharmacy and heighten patient health risks.

Sefap has launched the ‘La necesidad invisible’ campaign to promote global medication reviews in outpatient settings. The proposal is supported by research published in The BMJ, which analyzed dispensing records for over 2.2 million people aged 66 and older in Ontario, Canada. The study identified 24 priority prescription cascades, including common sequences such as iron followed by laxatives (11.9%) and statins followed by analgesics (10.9%).