It appears possible to stop the prescribing of a variety of medications with a range of interventions. A common theme in effective interventions is the involvement of patients in the stopping process. However, prescribing at the level of individual patients was rarely reported, with data often aggregated to number of doses or number of drugs per unit population, attributing any reduction to cessation. Such studies are not measuring the actual required outcome (stopping prescribing), and this may reflect the broader ambiguity about when or why it might be important to end a prescription. Much more research is required into the process of stopping pre-existing prescribing, paying particular attention to improving the outcomes that are measured.