Palliative Care News and Research

RSS

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.

Patients without advance care plans more likely to die

Researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in Omaha and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle found only half of patients undergoing stem cell transplantation had advance care plans - documents such as living wills, power of attorney for health care, or life-support instructions - and those without plans were three times more likely to die during or after surgery.

10 Dec 2007

Morphine for cancer pain relief

Cancer patients are suffering unnecessarily because they wrongly believe that morphine and other opioids are only used as “comfort for the dying” and as a “last resort” rather than seeing them as legitimate pain killers that can improve their quality of life.

10 Dec 2007

Many prostate cancer patients receive wrong treatment

Prostate cancer patients often receive treatment that is contraindicated by pre-existing conditions, like urinary or bowel dysfunction, according to a new study.

26 Nov 2007

UK hospitals short changing women with heart failure

Women with heart failure are less likely than men to receive recommended investigations and treatment, when admitted to hospital as an emergency, reveals an extensive UK survey, published ahead of print in the journal Heart.

14 Nov 2007

New approach to medical nondisclosure

When family members ask physicians not to disclose bad news to ill loved ones, clinicians often struggle to balance their obligation to be truthful to the patient with the family's belief that the information would be harmful.

2 Nov 2007

Pioneering study into older people’s expectations of dying

Academics at the University of Hertfordshire are carrying out one of the first studies of its kind into the experiences of older people in care homes as they draw close to death.

24 Oct 2007

Half of the world has no access to palliative care

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has issued a guide on palliative care for people with the advanced stages of cancer.

8 Oct 2007

Guidance for public health planners on people living with advanced cancer

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released its first guide on planning palliative care services for people living with advanced stages of cancer.

8 Oct 2007

Eldely and disabled not at increased risk of physician-assisted death

Claims that vulnerable groups, such as the elderly and people with physical or mental disabilities, are at an increased risk of physician assisted death are not supported by evidence, says an expert in this week's BMJ.

29 Sep 2007

The cancer burden in the developing world

Only a few years ago cancer was considered to be a disease of westernised, developed countries, but now the burden is increasingly falling on less developed countries, a leading epidemiologist told ECCO 14, the European Cancer Conference.

25 Sep 2007

Shortcomings in pediatric pain and palliative care

Advances in pain and palliative care for adults have been significant in the past decade due in part to increased recognition, support and use by caregivers and patients.

17 Aug 2007

New framework for patient dignity

Clinicians are being offered a new guide to help them maintain patients' dignity, according to this week's British Medical Journal.

27 Jul 2007

One in 10 hospice patients are referred too late for services

The study is based on surveys completed by bereaved family members and designed to gauge the quality of hospice programs, which provide medical care with social, emotional and spiritual support for the dying.

29 Jun 2007

More common for children with complex chronic conditions to die in their home than in a hospital

It is becoming more common for children with complex chronic conditions to die in their home than in a hospital, although black and Hispanic children with these conditions are less likely to die in their home, according to a study in the June 27 issue of JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, a theme issue on chronic diseases of children.

27 Jun 2007

Children with serious complex illness more likely than before to die at home than in the hospital

Children who die of a chronic illness are more likely to spend their final days at home compared to children who died two decades ago.

27 Jun 2007

Pain management is a fundamental human right

A growing international consensus urges change in several areas - including increased availability of controlled medications such as opioids - toward the goal of recognizing effective treatment for pain as a fundamental human right, according to a special article in the July issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, the official publication of the International Anesthesia Research Society and published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

27 Jun 2007

One in ten young cancer docs depressed

In a survey of 401 oncology registrars, 102 scored above the threshold for possible psychiatric morbidity and more than one in ten showed clinically important levels of depression.

From The University of Manchester 18 Jun 2007

Early palliative care interventions can reduce length of stay in ICU

Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center have found that early palliative care interventions can reduce the length of stay for seriously ill patients in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) by more than seven days without having an impact on mortality rates.

17 Jun 2007

Low potassium levels linked to increased mortality in heart failure patients

New research from University of Alabama at Birmingham indicates that patients with heart failure who have low to low-normal serum potassium levels are at increased risk of death.

8 Jun 2007

Heart failure patients should be thoroughly evaluated for the presence of diabetes

New research from UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) shows that the effect of diabetes on the severity of illness and risk of death for patients with heart failure is much worse in women than men.

10 May 2007