Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2024
Attitudes and beliefs regarding Pain Medicine: results of a national palliative physician survey.
Pain is a prevalent symptom in patients with serious illness and often requires interventional approaches for adequate treatment. Little is known about referral patterns and collaborative attitudes of palliative physicians regarding pain management specialists. ⋯ This study shows that Palliative Care physicians have highly positive attitudes toward Pain Medicine specialists, but referrals remain low. Facilitating professional collaboration via joint educational/clinical sessions is one possible solution to drive ongoing interprofessional care in patients with complex pain.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2024
Creating a Palliative Care Clinic for Patients with Cancer Pain and Substance Use Disorder.
Opioids are a first-line treatment for severe cancer pain. However, clinicians may be reluctant to prescribe opioids for patients with concurrent substance use disorders (SUD) or clinical concerns about non-prescribed substance use. ⋯ The formal collaboration with addiction psychiatry and the integration of harm reduction principles and practices into ambulatory palliative care improved our ability to provide treatment to a previously underserved patient population with high symptom burden.