Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2011
A model for increasing palliative care in the intensive care unit: enhancing interprofessional consultation rates and communication.
Only a minority of patients who die in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) receive palliative care services. At the South Texas Veterans Health Care System Audie L. Murphy Hospital, only 5% of patients who died in the MICU from May to August 2010 received a palliative care consultation. ⋯ Daily pre-rounds between the palliative care and MICU teams increased palliative care services for MICU patients at risk for poor outcomes, who may benefit from a palliative care consultation.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2011
Validity of the memorial symptom assessment scale-short form psychological subscales in advanced cancer patients.
The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form (MSAS-SF) is designed to evaluate physical and psychological symptom burden in advanced cancer patients. There are no current data assessing the validity of the MSAS-SF psychological symptom scores when compared with anxiety and depression. ⋯ These results support the validity of the MSAS-SF global distress index and psychological subscales in the assessment of patients with anxiety and depressive disorders.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2011
How do cancer patients receiving palliative care at home die? A descriptive study.
Data regarding the circumstances of the process of death of terminally ill patients followed at home are lacking. ⋯ This study has shown how advanced cancer patients die at home and that palliative home care may be helpful in allowing a death at home, particularly when relatives are actively involved.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2011
Randomized Controlled TrialCharacterization of abdominal pain during methylnaltrexone treatment of opioid-induced constipation in advanced illness: a post hoc analysis of two clinical trials.
Methylnaltrexone is a selective peripherally acting mu-opioid receptor antagonist that decreases the constipating effects of opioids without affecting centrally mediated analgesia. In two double-blind, placebo-controlled, Phase III studies of methylnaltrexone for opioid-induced constipation in patients with advanced illness, abdominal pain was the most common adverse event (AE) reported. ⋯ Abdominal pain AEs in methylnaltrexone-treated patients in clinical trials are usually described as "cramps" or "cramping," are mostly mild to moderate in severity, and decrease in incidence with subsequent dosing.
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Anxiety in terminal cancer is linked to diminished quality of life, yet overall it is poorly understood with regard to prevalence and relationship to other aspects of psychological distress. ⋯ Severity of anxiety symptoms did not differ between the study sites, suggesting that anxiety may differ from depression and desire for hastened death in the course that it takes over the duration of terminal cancer.