1 40 1 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Citation List Month Backlog URL Address <a href="http://doi.org/10.1191/026921600666097479" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">http://doi.org/10.1191/026921600666097479</a> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A multicentre international study of sedation for uncontrolled symptoms in terminally ill patients Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Palliative Medicine Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2000 Subject The topic of the resource Female; Humans; Male; Analgesics; Aged; Middle Aged; Treatment Outcome; Drug Therapy; Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support; Pain/drug therapy; Opioid/therapeutic use; Hypnotics and Sedatives/therapeutic use; Terminal Care/methods; Combination; Anti-Anxiety Agents/therapeutic use; Consciousness/drug effects; Delirium/drug therapy; Dyspnea/drug therapy; Midazolam/therapeutic use; Nausea/drug therapy Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Fainsinger RL; Waller A; Bercovici M; Bengtson K; Landman W; Hosking M; Nunez-Olarte JM; deMoissac D Description An account of the resource The issue of symptom management at the end of life and the need to use sedation has become a controversial topic. This debate has been intensified by the suggestion that sedation may correlate with 'slow euthanasia'. The need to have more facts and less anecdote was a motivating factor in this multicentre study. Four palliative care programmes in Israel, South Africa, and Spain agreed to participate. The target population was palliative care patients in an inpatient setting. Information was collected on demographics, major symptom distress, and intent and need to use sedatives in the last week of life. Further data on level of consciousness, adequacy of symptom control, and opioids and psychotropic agents used during the final week of life was recorded. As the final week of life can be difficult to predict, treating physicians were asked to complete the data at the time of death. The data available for analysis included 100 patients each from Israel and Madrid, 94 patients from Durban, and 93 patients from Cape Town. More than 90% of patients required medical management for pain, dyspnoea, delirium and/or nausea in the final week of life. The intent to sedate varied from 15% to 36%, with delirium being the most common problem requiring sedation. There were variations in the need to sedate patients for dyspnoea, and existential and family distress. Midazolam was the most common medication prescribed to achieve sedation. The diversity in symptom distress, intent to sedate and use of sedatives, provides further knowledge in characterizing and describing the use of deliberate pharmacological sedation for problematic symptoms at the end of life. The international nature of the patient population studied enhances our understanding of potential differences in definition of symptom issues, variation of clinical practice, and cultural and psychosocial influences. 2000 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="http://doi.org/10.1191/026921600666097479" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1191/026921600666097479</a> Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s). Type The nature or genre of the resource Journal Article 2000 Aged Analgesics Anti-Anxiety Agents/therapeutic use Backlog Bengtson K Bercovici M Combination Consciousness/drug Effects Delirium/drug therapy deMoissac D Drug Therapy Dyspnea/drug therapy Fainsinger RL Female Hosking M Humans Hypnotics and Sedatives/therapeutic use Journal Article Landman W Male Midazolam/therapeutic use Middle Aged Nausea/drug therapy Non-U.S. Gov't Nunez-Olarte JM Opioid/therapeutic use Pain/drug Therapy Palliative Medicine Research Support Terminal Care/methods Treatment Outcome Waller A