• J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2022

    Observational Study

    Potential contributing factors for irritability of unknown origin in pediatric palliative care.

    • Larissa Alice Dreier, Nina Angenendt, Carola Hasan, Boris Zernikow, and Julia Wager.
    • PedScience Research Institute (L.A.D., B.Z., J.W.), Datteln, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany; Department of Children's Pain Therapy and Paediatric Palliative Care (L.A.D., N.A., C.H., B.Z., J.W.), Faculty of Health, School of Medicine, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Electronic address: l.dreier@pedscience.de.
    • J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022 Aug 1; 64 (2): 156-167.

    ContextIn pediatric palliative care, irritability of unknown origin (IUO) in children with severe neurological impairment is a peculiarly complex and challenging symptom, yet its etiology remains poorly understood.ObjectivesPresenting a structured IUO diagnostic and therapeutic approach developed in a specialized inpatient pediatric palliative care facility for identifying IUO's potential contributing factors (PCFs).MethodsProspective observational study with N = 22 children showing IUO at admission to the inpatient pediatric palliative care facility. Analysis of patient records and participation in ward routine to identify and treat PCFs. Treatment outcome was assessed using a standardized protocol for tracking IUO at 24-hour intervals.ResultsAltogether, 136 PCFs were identified (average 6.18 per child) with pain and psycho-social problems being the most common. Two hundred and twenty-two diagnostic measures were initiated of which 159 (71.6%) helped identify a PCF. The majority of PCFs were identified by basic diagnostics (93.7%). Inpatient length of stay and duration of IUO phases correlated significantly. Between baseline (days 3-5; timing at which inpatients experientially show regular behavior) and discharge, patients showed a significant reduction in average 24-hours IUO duration by 1 hour and 26 minutes (Wilcoxon test: Z = -3.29, P < 0.01).ConclusionResults lead to a more thorough understanding of PCFs to IUO. Following a systematic approach such as the one presented, PCFs can be detected even by simple diagnostics. In addition to biological aspects, diagnostics and therapy should address psycho-social aspects of IUO.Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…