Browse Items (302 total)

BACKGROUND: While there has been a rapid increase of inpatient palliative care (PC) programs, the financial and clinical benefits have not been well established. OBJECTIVE: Determine the effect of an inpatient PC consultation service on costs and…

The fear of "choking to death" is on the mind of most patients suffering from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). So far, however, there have been no systematic surveys concerning the dying phase in a general ALS population. We therefore performed a…

This report describes the multiple complementary analytic methods used to create a composite evaluation of the benefits of a hospital-based inpatient palliative care consultation service at Montefiore Medical Center in its preliminary phase. We…

Although quantitative estimates of patients' attitudes toward the relative importance of different aspects of health are of great potential usefulness in medical decision making, there is little information about the stability of such values over…

Background: Empirical descriptions of a 'good death' exist for older adults with cancer, and these have served as the foundation for providing quality end of life care. In contrast, little is known about what, if anything, constitutes a 'good death'…

The authors assessed the test-retest reliabilities of two treatment-preference instruments recently applied to the measurement of the utilities of health states after different treatment modalities for cancer. The first instrument measures the…

BACKGROUND: Discussing end-of-life issues with terminally ill patients is often considered distressing and harmful. This study was conducted to assess whether interviewing terminally ill patients and their caregivers about death, dying, and…

STUDY OBJECTIVES: More than two thirds of family members visiting intensive care unit (ICU) patients have symptoms of anxiety or depression during the first days of hospitalization. Identifying determinants of these symptoms would help caregivers…

CONTEXT: In clinical practice, some symptoms and problems frequently occur in combination, which may have consequences for symptom management. OBJECTIVES: Facing a growing number of non-cancer patients in palliative care, this study aimed to…

This article reports on the first stage of a process to develop a clinical performance indicator for a community-based palliative care service that may inform the development of an agreed set of indicators for the whole sector. The study explores…

PURPOSE: To define the dose ratio between morphine and methadone in relation to the previous morphine dose and the number of days needed to achieve the same level of analgesia in a group of patients with advanced cancer with pain who switched from…

BACKGROUND: Palliative care unit (PCU) beds are a limited resource in Canada, so PCU admission is restricted to patients with a short prognosis. Anecdotally, PCUs further restrict admission of patients with noncancer diagnoses out of fear that they…

The logistics of administering intravenous bisphosphonates may be problematic in the care of advanced cancer patients, especially in the home setting. Hypodermoclysis is a convenient method of administering fluid via subcutaneous infusion, presently…

We examined differences in stressors and well-being for caregivers who care for a relative with dementia at home and those who had placed their relative in a nursing home. The groups did not differ in depression or somatic complaints, but nursing…

In this study, we analyzed the relationships among clinical, emotional, social, and spiritual dimensions of patients with advanced illness. It was a cross-sectional study, with a sample of 108 patients in an advanced illness situation attended by…

BACKGROUND: Chronic neuropathic pain affects 1%-2% of the adult population and is often refractory to standard pharmacologic treatment. Patients with chronic pain have reported using smoked cannabis to relieve pain, improve sleep and improve mood.…

Previously overlooked factors in elders' depressive symptomatology were examined, including death fear, sibling death, and sibling closeness. Participants were 150 elders (61 men, 89 women) aged 65-97 years with at least one sibling. Measures were…

Purpose: There is lack of standardized resident' curriculum or training for the rapidly emerging field of pediatric end of life care. Goal: To assess pediatric residents' perception of their clinical competence with end of life care and their…

OBJECTIVES: To validate five items (CPWQ-inf) regarding satisfaction with information provided to cancer patients from health care staff, assess the prevalence of dissatisfaction with this information, and identify factors predicting dissatisfaction.…

When provided by a skilled, multidisciplinary team, palliative care is highly effective at addressing the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual needs of dying patients and their families. However, some patients who have witnessed harsh death…

OBJECTIVE: End-of-life (EOL) medical care consumes 10-12% of national health care expenditures and 27% of Medicare dollars annually. Studies suggest that hospice services decrease EOL expenditures by 25-40%. The goal of this study was to compare the…

OBJECTIVE: To assess resource utilization and outcome in gravely ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and the potential association with health care workers' and family members' expectations. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We retrospectively…

Hospices were founded to alleviate suffering at the end of life. Quality improvement in hospices should, therefore, target patients' subjective assessments of their care and its outcomes. However, little is known about the relationships among…

BACKGROUND: Various scales have been used to assess palliative outcomes. But measurement can still be problematic and core components of measures have not been identified. This study aimed to determine the relationships between, and factorial…

INTRODUCTION: This intervention study examines anxiety and uncertainty in illness in families transferring from intensive care to a general ward. METHODS: The pre-test, post-test design purposively allocated family members to a control (n = 80) and…

A survival analysis of 40 cases of early onset cerebellar ataxia (EOCA) with retained tendon reflexes was performed. They represent all cases of EOCA diagnosed between 1945 and 1990 among residents of a defined area of Northwestern Italy, followed up…

BACKGROUND: The growth of palliative care research has been limited by challenges of slow recruitment and underenrollment. One potential solution to this problem is the use of screening questions embedded in clinical data collection, which identify…

OBJECTIVE: To describe the reasons for eventual dissatisfaction among the families of patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU), regarding both the assistance offered during the patient's stay in the hospital and the information received…

Introduction: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a rare malignancy in India except in north-eastern states. We present our institutional experience of 16 years highlighting management, outcomes, responses and toxicities. Material(s) and Method(s): NPC…

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