Medication holidays

Abstract

Medication holiday refers to the deliberate interruption of pharmacotherapy for a defined period and for a specific clinical purpose. This should be distinguished from medication nonadherence. Medication holidays can be used for the assessment of efficacy and tolerability of a drug therapy. They also can be used for a therapeutic benefit, such as alleviating adverse effects. To partially reverse the physiological adaptive effects that result from chronic pharmacological stimulation, medication holidays have been hypothesized to "resensitize" neurons to the acute pharmacological effects of a drug. Potential problems associated with medication holidays include the risk of destabilizing patients, difficulty in distinguishing rebound and discontinuation effects, and increasing the risk of poor medication adherence.