Palliative care
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Palliative care is defined in health care as "care alleviating symptoms without curing the underlying disease".[1]
Clinical practice guidelines[2] and a systematic review[3] 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.
- "Clinicians should regularly assess patients for pain, dyspnea, and depression."
- "Clinicians should use therapies of proven effectiveness to manage pain. For patients with cancer, this includes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, and bisphosphonates."
- "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."
- "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."
- "Clinicians should ensure that advance care planning, including completion of advance directives, occurs for all patients with serious illness."
References
- ↑ Anonymous. Palliative care. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
- ↑ Qaseem A, Snow V, Shekelle P, Casey DE, Cross JT, Owens DK et al. (2008). "Evidence-based interventions to improve the palliative care of pain, dyspnea, and depression at the end of life: a clinical practice guideline from the American College of Physicians.". Ann Intern Med 148 (2): 141-6. PMID 18195338.
- ↑ Lorenz KA, Lynn J, Dy SM, Shugarman LR, Wilkinson A, Mularski RA et al. (2008). "Evidence for improving palliative care at the end of life: a systematic review.". Ann Intern Med 148 (2): 147-59. PMID 18195339.