Articles: palliative-care.
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Dyspnea is a complex subjective experience that is common in terminal illness. Patients may present at any time during the course of their illness, although prevalence increases with disease progression. ⋯ The main pharmacological palliative treatments are oxygen, opioids, and benzodiazepines, but the evidence to support these treatments is limited. More research is urgently needed to establish the efficacy of current treatments and to identify new ones.
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The efficacy and safety of using rifampicin to treat the pruritus associated with malignant cholestasis was evaluated. The outcomes of eight patients who received 150 mg rifampicin twice daily were reviewed. ⋯ No side effects were reported. Rifampicin is a safe effective treatment for the pruritus associated with cholestasis secondary to cancer.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Nov 1998
Symptoms and attitudes of 100 consecutive patients admitted to an acute hospice/palliative care unit.
One hundred patients admitted to an acute hospice/palliative care unit in a U. S. teaching hospital were evaluated using a standardized data acquisition tool that assessed the presence of physical symptoms and attitudes concerning admission to such a specialty unit. Patients entering the unit between June 1995 and October 1995 completed the tool within 24 hours of admission. ⋯ Of the 59 patients and family/friends that responded to the question "How do you feel about hospice care?", 53 gave a positive response. When asked about the best aspects of the unit, the most common response related to the care the patient and family received (23 responses, 39%). We conclude that patients admitted to an acute inpatient hospice/palliative care unit have multiple symptoms and a high degree of satisfaction with the environment.
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The objective of this study was to investigate how many patients who die from causes other than cancer might benefit from specialist palliative care. This was achieved by secondary analysis of data from the Regional Study of Care for the Dying, a retrospective national population-based interview survey. The investigation involved 20 self-selected English health districts, nationally representative in terms of social deprivation and most aspects of health services provision. ⋯ An increase of at least 79% in caseload would, therefore, be expected if specialist palliative care services were made fully available to noncancer patients. This is a conservative estimate, as non-cancer patients were matched to only one-third of cancer patients who had specialist palliative care. It is concluded that clinicians and patient groups caring for patients with advanced nonmalignant disease must work together with specialist palliative care services and with health commissioners to develop, fund and evaluate appropriate, cost-effective services which meet patient and family needs for symptom control and psychosocial support.