Anticipatory prescribing

Last month, the research round-up provided you with an overview of articles looking at the prescribing of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) therapy for the prevention of HIV infection. This month, we will be looking at anticipatory prescribing. The first article is a systematic review of community anticipatory prescribing since 2017. The second article looks at the financial cost of anticipatory prescribing. Finally, our third paper looks at anticipatory prescribing in an inner-city hospice community.

This article, published in the BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care, is a systematic review of the evidence concerning the anticipatory prescribing of injectable medications in an adult population since 2017. This was to expand the evidence amassed since a previous systematic review conducted and published in 2017.

The review was mainly to focus on use of these medications in end-of-life care, with the aim of using the data to inform practice and guidance. Review questions related to current practice, attitudes of patients and caregivers, attitudes of community health professionals and impact on patient comfort and symptoms. The final review question was around cost-effectiveness. The systematic review was conducted in line with expected methodology and rigor using nine literature databases, and the findings were reported as a narrative synthesis. The search period covered May 2017 to March 2022. Gough's Weight of Evidence framework was used to appraise included studies. In total, 28 papers were included for narrative synthesis.