Palliative care

Palliative care is defined in health care as "care alleviating symptoms without curing the underlying disease".

Clinical practice guidelines by the American College of Physicians make five recommendations to health care providers. The first four recommendations are specifically for patients with serious illness who are at the end of life.

1. "Clinicians should regularly assess patients for pain, dyspnea, and depression."
2. "Clinicians should use therapies of proven effectiveness to manage pain. For patients with cancer, this includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, and bisphosphonates."
3. "Clinicians should use therapies of proven effectiveness to manage dyspnea, which include opioids in patients with unrelieved dyspnea and oxygen for short-term relief of hypoxemia."
4. "Clinicians should use therapies of proven effectiveness to manage depression. For patients with cancer, this includes tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or psychosocial intervention."
5. "Clinicians should ensure that advance care planning, including completion of advance directives, occurs for all patients with serious illness."

See also

• Medical ethics