Jaye,
For the majority of patients, "yanking" them off of their meds is a bad idea and would drive up costs, not to mention agony for the patient. The only situation I can think of is if you are on one med and it is questionable whether it is working or you are on so many meds that in order to get some control over it, you need to start clean and restart one at a time or drop a med one at a time. This should be preceeded with a discussion between doctor and patient and be mutually agreed upon. The guideline are open for interpretation IMHO.

TG