Browse Items (45 total)

PURPOSE: Palliative sedation therapy (PST) is a controversial issue. There is a need for internationally accepted definitions and standards. METHODS: A systematic review of the literature was performed by an international panel of 29 palliative care…

OBJECTIVE: Review and analyze the evidence base comprising methadone conversion methods and associated dosing ratios for the treatment of pain. DESIGN: Systematic review. METHODS: Clinical trials and retrospective analyses, case series, and case…

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabis-based medicines raises safety concerns for patients, clinicians, policy-makers, insurers, researchers and regulators. Although the efficacy of cannabinoids is being increasingly demonstrated in…

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and efficiency of an add-on treatment with the synthetic cannabinomimetic nabilone on patients with chronic pain. Of major interest were the evaluation of the influence the treatment…

Methadone, although having been available for approximately half a century, is now receiving increasing attention in the management of chronic pain. This is due to recent research showing that methadone exhibits at least three different mechanisms of…

Pediatric oncology social workers are often engaged in the psychosocial care of dying children and their families. Despite their participation on the interdisciplinary team, the role for social work in pediatric palliative and end-of-life care has…

OBJECTIVES: Professional societies, ethics institutes, and the courts have recommended principles to guide the care of children with life-threatening conditions; however, little is known about the degree to which pediatric care providers are aware of…

BACKGROUND: Bisphosphonates form part of standard therapy for hypercalcemia and the prevention of skeletal events in some cancers. However, the role of bisphosphonates in pain relief for bony metastases remains uncertain. OBJECTIVES: To determine the…

This article reviews the literature pertaining to the metabolism of several of the commonly used opioids, and the known activity of their metabolites. The effect of renal failure on the pharmacokinetics of these drugs and metabolites is then…

Opioids are used increasingly for chronic non-cancer pain. Controversy exists about their effectiveness and safety with long-term use. We analysed available randomised, placebo-controlled trials of WHO step 3 opioids for efficacy and safety in…

1. The management of chronic pain should be directed by the underlying cause of the pain. Whatever the cause, the primary goal of patient care should be symptom control. 2. Opioid treatment should be considered for both continuous neuropathic and…

BACKGROUND: No comprehensive review has been published to date, which provides information for nurses on pharmaceutical alternatives to morphine in palliative care. As nurses are often the health professional most involved with terminally ill…

Pharmacokinetic drug-drug interactions with codeine, dihydrocodeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and buprenorphine are reviewed in this column. These compounds have a very similar chemical structure to morphine. Unlike morphine, which is metabolized…

BACKGROUND: Intensivists must provide enough analgesia and sedation to ensure dying patients receive good palliative care. However, if it is perceived that too much is given, they risk prosecution for committing euthanasia. The goal of this study is…

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) provides improved titration of analgesic drugs, thereby minimizing individual pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic differences. Patient-controlled analgesia decreases patient anxiety resulting from delays in…

PURPOSE: Methadone is still regarded as a second line opioid for patients suffering from severe pain, and is rarely used in hospitalized patients. The infrequent use of methadone is probably due to its long plasma half-life that could lead to…

OBJECTIVE: To identify the characteristics of the subset of children with malignancy in whom massive opioid infusions are needed during the terminal phase. DESIGN: Retrospective review of the records of the 199 patients who died of malignancy after…

This study examined the differences in the prescription and administration of analgesics in eight pediatric specialty units. Medical records of patients (n = 153) who were reported by nurses to be having pain were reviewed. Results showed that there…

BACKGROUND: The management of pain in children has advanced enormously in recent years. Pharmacological treatment of pain is complicated however, by the widespread use of unlicensed and off label medicines in the paediatric population, leading to…

The principle of double effect is used to justify the administration of medication to relieve pain even though it may lead to the unintended, although foreseen, consequence of hastening death by causing respiratory depression. Although a review of…

Ketamine has been used parenterally for pain unresponsive to opioids, including neuropathic pain, and has also been used as an alternative analgesic agent after surgery. Although oral administration of ketamine has been used for some time as a single…

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…

PURPOSE: To evaluate the clinical benefits of switching from morphine to oral methadone in patients who experience poor analgesia or adverse effects from morphine. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-two consecutive cancer patients receiving oral morphine…

OBJECTIVE: To compare the use of analgesia in children to adults in 3 different emergency department (ED) settings. METHODS: Forty adult and 40 pediatric ED charts were randomly selected for review at each of 3 institutions: an academic medical…

Traditionally, opioids have been administered as fixed doses at fixed dose intervals. This approach has been largely ineffective. Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) and upgraded traditional approaches incorporating flexibility in dose size and dose…

The term 'opioid' is a generic term for naturally occurring, semisynthetic and synthetic drugs which combine with opioid receptors to produce physiological effects and which are stereospecifically antagonised by naloxone. For clinical purposes,…

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid with short-acting analgesic activity after intravenous or subcutaneous administration. The low molecular weight, high potency and lipid solubility of fentanyl make it suitable for delivery via the transdermal…
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