Journal of pain and symptom management
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Efforts to improve care for nursing home residents stand to be enhanced by measures to assess the degree to which staff provide palliative care. As the incidence of death in nursing homes increases with the aging population, the gap in measurement must be addressed. To that end, we report the development and psychometric testing of a nursing home palliative care survey. ⋯ The PCS measures the extent to which the nursing home staff engage in palliative care practices and have knowledge consistent with good end-of-life care. Both practice and knowledge are an essential foundation to providing good end-of-life care to nursing home residents. Efforts to improve care for the dying in nursing homes have been slowed by an absence of measurement tools that capture care processes, a gap that the PCS reported here helps fill.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2011
Multicenter StudyChange in cancer pain management in Korea between 2001 and 2006: results of two nationwide surveys.
In Korea, many health care professionals have shown increased concern about the management of cancer pain. Five years after a pain management guideline was distributed to Korean physicians, the Korean Society of Hospice and Palliative Care evaluated the change in cancer pain management. The period evaluated was between 2001 and 2006. ⋯ Some improvement in cancer pain management was noted during the five years between 2001 and 2006. However, all of the physicians who care for cancer patients should pay more attention to cancer pain management, and an educational program for cancer pain management should be distributed to all of the physicians who care for cancer patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2010
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyHydroxyurea and acute painful crises in sickle cell anemia: effects on hospital length of stay and opioid utilization during hospitalization, outpatient acute care contacts, and at home.
Exploratory findings from the randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter study of hydroxyurea (MSH) in sickle cell anemia (SS). Recurrent acute painful crises may be mild, moderate, or severe in nature and often require treatment at home, in acute care facilities as outpatients, and in the hospital with oral and/or parenteral opioids. ⋯ Beneficial effects of HU include shortening the duration of hospitalization because of acute painful episodes and reducing the net amount of opioid utilization.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2010
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialLong-term safety and efficacy of morphine sulfate and naltrexone hydrochloride extended release capsules, a novel formulation containing morphine and sequestered naltrexone, in patients with chronic, moderate to severe pain.
Morphine sulfate and naltrexone hydrochloride extended release capsules contain extended-release pellets of morphine with a sequestered naltrexone core (MS-sNT). Taken whole, as intended, morphine is released to provide pain relief; if tampered with by crushing, naltrexone is released to mitigate subjective effects of morphine. ⋯ In this study population, when MS-sNT was taken as directed for chronic, moderate to severe pain for up to 12 months, most AEs were typical opioid-related side effects. Mean COWS scores remained low, indicating lack of withdrawal symptoms and appropriate transition off the study drug at completion.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 2010
Multicenter Study Clinical TrialLong-term safety and tolerability of fentanyl buccal tablet for the treatment of breakthrough pain in opioid-tolerant patients with chronic pain: an 18-month study.
Breakthrough pain (BTP) is highly prevalent in patients with chronic cancer and noncancer pain, commonly requiring treatment with short-acting or rapid-onset opioids. This is the first report of an analysis of long-term safety from combined clinical trials of a rapid-onset transmucosal formulation of fentanyl, the fentanyl buccal tablet (FBT). ⋯ FBT was generally safe and well tolerated, with self-reported functional improvement observed in most of the opioid-tolerant patients with BTP in association with chronic noncancer pain.