JRRD releases single-topic issue on pain and pain management
...to be supported by a randomized study. Pain and palliative medicine, pg. 279 Pain control is an important part of medical care for patients with advanced illnesses. We summarize available information on pain in different patient groups near the end of life and on developments using behavioral and physical...Psychosocial support for cancer survivors needs strengthening
...for all patients receiving curative, follow-up, or palliative care for cancer," Dr. Owen recommends....Caring for the sick now a public health priority for developing countries
... people in these poorer nations could benefit from palliative care services, including family members and close ...r cure. Around 100 countries around the world have palliative care services, however only 6% are located in Asia and Africa, where the highest demand for the serv...Racial disparities in treatment of patients with cirrhosis and complications of portal hypertension
... portal hypertension were less likely to undergo a palliative shunt, prompt endoscopy, or liver transplantation ...e awaiting transplants, they may be candidates for palliative procedures including endoscopic band ligation or portosystemic shunts. Previous studies have revea...$1.5 million awarded for palliative care research
...estigators conducting patient-oriented research in palliative care in hopes of bringing more funding from federal agencies, which have supported some research in palliative care, but for whom it is not a priority area. Pilot data results are typically needed before a feder...Morphine kills pain -- not patients
...ig Cancer Center in which patients in a specialist palliative care in-patient unit with severe cancer pain were treated with morphine, a type of opioid. Their vital statistics were monitored before and after the pain was controlled and there were no significant changes. Morphine did not cause respiratory depres...Should NICE evaluate complementary medicine?
...ended to deny the important role of supportive and palliative care for patients for whom that is the best that can be done, he says. But there is no need to subscribe to the early 19th century pseudoscientific hocus pocus of homoeopathy to treat sick patients sympathetically and holistically. And there is no ...Using morphine to hasten death is a myth, says doctor
...ling choice, writes Claud Regnard, a consultant in palliative care medicine. The principle of double effect allo...itation (which is why such doses are never used in palliative care), and it has a wide therapeutic range (making death unlikely). The Dutch know this and hardly...Take fatigue seriously, says University of Alberta researcher
...rs, individuals with cancer in active treatment or palliative settings, and individuals diagnosed with depression or chronic fatigue syndrome. Having worked with cancer patients for many years, she saw how serious fatigue was and the impact it had on the patients' quality of life. Some patients even withdrew fo...Hopeful nurses are more comfortable, confident in caring for dying children
...lso were more likely to have received education in palliative care--the practice of providing high-quality, resp...Feudtner and Ms. Santucci are experts on pediatric palliative care and members of the Hospital's Pediatric Advanced Care Team, which provides palliative, end-of-l...Costs of long-course palliative radiotherapy acceptable in late-stage lung cancer
...able stage IIIA/B or stage IV NSCLC to compare two palliative radiotherapy regimensa short course, two treatments of 8 gray (Gy) of radiation each, with a long course, 10 treatments of 3 Gy each. They found that the long course better eased symptoms over time and improved 1-year survival compared with the short...Hospital palliative care programs continue rapid growth
New York, NY -- Hospitals continue to implement palliative care programs at a rapid pace, according to a Cent...lysis shows that 1240 hospitals nationwide provide palliative care programs today. This is compared to 632 programs in 2000a five-year increase of 96%. Palliativ...Seven-point system gauges seriousness of heart failure in elderly
...ary medical intervention and may benefit most from palliative or hospice care. "It has typically been very difficult to predict how long a person hospitalized with heart failure may survive," says senior author Michael W. Rich, M.D., associate professor of medicine and a geriatric cardiologist at Barnes-Jewi...'Umbrella' valve provides a potential alternative to lung surgery
... treatment may represent a valuable option for the palliative treatment of patients with emphysema."...Penn critical-care physicians recommend strategies when facing requests to end supplemental oxygen
...removing such a minimally invasive and potentially palliative therapy, and suggests strategies for physicians to overcome them -- is in the September 20th issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Halpern explains, "Informed patients with decision-making capacity have well-established ri...National study: Patients poorly prepared for end-of-life decisions
...). Dr. Heyland heads a national research group on palliative and end-of-life care initiatives located at Queen's and McMaster, with affiliates at other Canadian universities and hospitals. Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the five-year project began in 2004 and focuses on care in ho...Elder's death at airstrip: Research exposes deeper issues
...chFellow, Dr Pam McGrath, who conducted a study of palliative care services for Indigenous Australians in the No...two-year research study and report a new model for palliative care provision for Indigenous communities was developed. The model emphasises building up local co...Tumor necrosis factor blockers may not cause cancer after all
...of cancer followed by any course or combination of palliative care, biopsy, radiation, chemotherapy, or surgery. Using time-varying propensity scores to adjust for a wide range of possible factors and stratified proportional hazards regression, researchers estimated the effects of biological DMARDs on cancer. ...India-Australia cancer care research headed up by CQU academic
...ital, the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), to enhance palliative care services and to promote cancer prevention thr...o-operation, with particular focus on the areas of palliative care service delivery and community-based health promotion. This partnership was consolidated in F...Anaesthetists need urgent guidance on patients who don't want to be resuscitated
...practice by anaesthetists, including intensive and palliative care. While individual autonomy in these cases is often best served by a sensitive and detailed exploration of the patient's wishes by the doctors caring for them, it might be that some national guidance is needed. "The Council of the Associatio...