Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
ReviewWhat can we learn about the spiritual needs of palliative care patients from the research literature?
Spirituality is a distinctive subject within palliative care practice and literature, but research to date is relatively undeveloped in this field and studies often throw more light on conceptual and methodological issues than producing reliable data for clinical practice. ⋯ Relevant accounts of what spirituality means for palliative care patients and evidence of how it operates in the lives of people with life-limiting disease can be derived from research. Studies to date are limited by reductive representations of spirituality and the conduct of research by health professionals within health care communities demarcated from disciplines and interpretive traditions of spirituality.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
Assessing the quality of pain care in ambulatory patients with advanced stage cancer.
Pain is common among patients with advanced cancer despite the dissemination of clinical pain care guidelines. ⋯ There is room for improvement in the pain care of patients with advanced cancer. Additional research is needed to understand the reasons for poor performance.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
Randomized Controlled TrialDetecting the emergence of chronic pain in sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited hematological disease marked by intense pain. Early in life the pain is episodic, but it becomes increasingly chronic in many cases. Little is known about this emergence of a chronic pain state. ⋯ Most SCD patients whose pain remits entirely between episodes are not in a chronic pain state, but some--those who are older and have a history of highly painful episodes--appear to be transitioning into it. These early signs of disturbed processing may aid clinicians seeking to forestall disease progression.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
Clinical TrialContent development for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Multiple Myeloma (FACT-MM): use of qualitative and quantitative methods for scale construction.
Multiple myeloma (MM) is a common hematologic malignancy and is associated with symptom burden and impairments in health-related quality of life (HRQL). ⋯ The 14-item FACT-MM PRO measure was developed based on expert clinician and patient data, ensuring relevance to HRQL for MM patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
The prevalence of bowel problems reported in a palliative care population.
Constipation and other disturbances of bowel function are distressing problems for people with specialist palliative care needs. Recent observations suggest that such problems may worsen as people become more unwell, but the changes in intensity over time are not well documented. ⋯ In conclusion, disturbed bowel function consistently remains a problem for people under the care of palliative care services, with the proportion of people with severe problems increasing as death approaches. This is despite the time and number of interventions currently used to palliate these problems.