Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2016
Randomized Controlled TrialFamily Caregiver Depressive Symptom and Grief Outcomes from the ENABLE III Randomized Controlled Trial.
Little is known about whether early palliative care (EPC) support for family caregivers (CGs) impacts depressive symptoms and grief after care recipients die. ⋯ CGs' depressive symptom and complicated grief scores 8-12 weeks after care recipients' deaths were not statistically different based on the timing of EPC support. The impact of timing of CG EPC interventions on CGs bereavement outcomes requires further investigation.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2016
Understanding Treatment Effect Terminology in Pain and Symptom Management Research.
Within health services and medical research, there is a wide variety of terminology related to treatment effects. Understanding differences in types of treatment effects is especially important in pain and symptom management research where nonexperimental and quasiexperimental observational data analysis is common. ⋯ Our goal is to facilitate appropriate reporting and interpretation of study results and to help investigators understand what information a decision maker needs when deciding whether to implement a treatment. Greater awareness of the reasons why treatment effects may differ across studies of the same patients in the same treatment settings can help policy makers and clinicians understand to whom a study's results may be generalized.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2016
Cost Analysis and Policy Implications of a Pediatric Palliative Care Program.
In 2010, California launched Partners for Children (PFC), a pediatric palliative care pilot program offering hospice-like services for children eligible for full-scope Medicaid delivered concurrently with curative care, regardless of the child's life expectancy. ⋯ Through the provision of home-based therapeutic services, 24/7 access to medical advice, and enhanced, personally tailored care coordination, PFC demonstrated an effective way to reduce costs for children with life-limiting conditions by moving from costly inpatient care to more coordinated and less expensive outpatient care. PFC's home-based care strategy is a cost-effective model for pediatric palliative care elsewhere.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2016
Prospective Validation of the Objective Prognostic Score for Advanced Cancer Patients in Diverse Palliative Settings.
Prognostication is an essential part of palliative care to aid decision making and negotiate goals of care. The Objective Prognostic Score (OPS) is an easy-to-use prognosticating tool to predict survival among far-advanced cancer patients in palliative care units (PCUs) in Korea. ⋯ The OPS can be used for prognostication among advanced cancer patients in PCT, PCU, and HPC settings.