Palliative medicine
-
Palliative medicine · Apr 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialThe 'Cancer Home-Life Intervention': A randomised controlled trial evaluating the efficacy of an occupational therapy-based intervention in people with advanced cancer.
People with advanced cancer face difficulties with their everyday activities at home that may reduce their health-related quality of life. To address these difficulties, we developed the 'Cancer Home-Life Intervention'. ⋯ In most cases, the 'Cancer Home-Life Intervention' was delivered through only one home visit and one follow-up telephone contact, which not was effective in maintaining or improving participants' everyday activities and health-related quality of life. Future research should pay even more attention to intervention development and feasibility testing.
-
Palliative medicine · Apr 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialDifferential effects of early palliative care based on the age and sex of patients with advanced cancer from a randomized controlled trial.
Early palliative care interventions enhance patient outcomes, including quality of life, mood, and coping, but it remains unclear whether certain subgroups of patients are more likely to benefit from early palliative care. We explored whether age and sex moderate the improved outcomes seen with early palliative care. ⋯ Age and sex moderate the effects of early palliative care for patients with advanced lung cancer. Early palliative care may need to be tailored to individuals' unique sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.
-
Palliative medicine · Apr 2018
The impact of therapeutic opioid agonists on driving-related psychomotor skills assessed by a driving simulator or an on-road driving task: A systematic review.
Driving cessation is associated with poor health-related outcomes. People with chronic diseases are often prescribed long-term opioid agonists that have the potential to impair driving. Studies evaluating the impact of opioids on driving-related psychomotor skills report contradictory results likely due to heterogeneous designs, assessment tools and study populations. A better understanding of the effects of regular therapeutic opioid agonists on driving can help to inform the balance between individual's independence and community safety. ⋯ This systematic review does not identify impaired simulated driving performance when people take regular therapeutic opioid agonists for symptom control, although more prospective studies are needed.
-
Palliative medicine · Apr 2018
Multicenter StudyPalliative care triggers in progressive neurodegenerative conditions: An evaluation using a multi-centre retrospective case record review and principal component analysis.
The use of specific triggers has been suggested to help identify patients with progressive neurological disease who would benefit from palliative care. ⋯ This study demonstrates that there is a high burden of triggers in the last months and years of life and that these could potentially be reduced to fewer components. Prospective studies assessing which triggers are useful for different conditions are now required.