Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2024
Effects of Prognostic Communication Strategies on Prognostic Perceptions, Treatment Decisions and End-Of-Life Anticipation in Advanced Cancer: An Experimental Study among Analogue Patients.
Evidence-based guidance for oncologists on how to communicate prognosis is scarce. ⋯ If and how oncologists discuss prognosis can influence how individuals perceive prognosis, which treatment they prefer, and how they feel about treatment decisions. Communicating numerical estimates may stimulate prognostic understanding and informed treatment decision-making.
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"My One Wild and Precious Life - The Purpose of Medical Care", contains reflections of a medical student as a naive little boy, inspired by his late grandfather, pinning to becoming a physician, who later struggles to find purpose in the unidealistic world of the current healthcare system. But, through his exposure to "Pallium India", a non-profit palliative care organization in Kerala, India, healthcare once more gains meaning and signifies the importance of love and care amidst a patient's journey through pain and suffering.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2024
Palliative Medicine Fellows' Discussions, Perceptions, and Training Regarding Medical Cannabis.
Medical cannabis is increasingly considered for palliation of pain, nausea/vomiting, anorexia, and other symptoms. ⋯ Most HPM fellows report formal training in the use of medical cannabis. Over half of trainees reported discussing medical cannabis with patients, but few considered themselves sufficiently informed to make cannabis-related clinical recommendations. These results suggest both a need for expanded high-quality evidence for medical cannabis in palliative care and for improved formal education for HPM fellows.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2024
Burden, depression and quality of life in carers of newly diagnosed advanced cancer patients in Egypt.
The goal of palliative care (PC) is to improve the quality of life (QoL) of patients with life-limiting illnesses as well as their families. Ideally, PC is integrated early in the course of life-limiting illnesses. Less attention has been paid to the need for early PC for family caregivers (FCs) in lower-income settings. ⋯ A substantial proportion of Egyptian FCs of incurable cancer patients experience significant burden early in the course of the disease. This burden is associated with depressive symptoms and worse QoL dimensions, physical, psychological, and social. In a lower-income setting, early PC interventions for FCs of incurable cancer patients are needed.