Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2013
Clinical TrialMinor cognitive impairments in cancer patients magnify the effect of caregiver preferences on end-of-life care.
Cognitive impairment commonly affects cancer patients. ⋯ Cognitive impairment in patients with advanced cancer is associated with less intensive EOL care. Caregivers' influence on intensive EOL care dramatically increases with minor declines in patients' cognitive function.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2013
Multicenter StudyHow to analyze palliative care outcome data for patients in Sub-Saharan Africa: an international, multicenter, factor analytic examination of the APCA African POS.
The incidence of life-limiting progressive disease in sub-Saharan Africa presents a significant clinical and public health challenge. The ability to easily measure patient outcomes is essential to improving care. ⋯ This analysis presents an important new opportunity in the analysis of outcome data for patients with progressive disease. It has advantages over both the total scoring of multidimensional scaling (which masks differences between domains) and of item scoring (which requires repeated analyses). The three factors map well onto the underlying concept and clinical goals of palliative care, and will enable audit of facility care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2013
Clinical TrialUse of pregabalin in the management of chronic uremic pruritus.
Uremic pruritus (UP) affects many patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) and has a negative impact on quality of life and survival. It has become increasingly evident that central transmission and sensitization processes similar to those observed in chronic pain are important mechanisms of pruritus. ⋯ We demonstrated dramatic improvement of long-standing UP after the initiation of pregabalin. We suggest that pregabalin can be used safely in CKD but careful titration of the dose is required to obtain an optimal response and minimize the possible adverse effects.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2013
Comparative StudyMeasurement properties of the eight-item abbreviated functional assessment of cancer therapy--breast symptom index and comparison with its 37-item parent measure.
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy--Breast Symptom Index (FBSI) is an eight-item instrument extracted from the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy--Breast (FACT-B). There has been no formal assessment of this eight-item version. ⋯ The English and Chinese versions of the FBSI are valid and reliable and provide comparable FBSI scores. The English version is responsive to change, whereas the responsiveness of the Chinese version warrants further study.