Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2012
Does palliative care have a future in the emergency department? Discussions with attending emergency physicians.
Palliative care focuses on the relief of pain and suffering and achieving the best possible quality of life for patients. Although traditionally delivered in the inpatient setting, emergency departments (EDs) are a new focus for palliative care consultation teams. ⋯ Emergency providers identified many benefits to palliative care consultation. Solving logistical problems and developing clear indications for consultation might help increase the use of such services.
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PC-FACS (Fast Article Critical Summaries for Clinicians in Palliative Care), an electronic publication of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, provides palliative care clinicians with concise summaries of the most important findings from more than 50 medical and scientific journals. Each month, structured summaries and insightful commentaries on 6-10 articles help palliative care clinicians stay on top of the research that is critical to contemporary practice. PC-FACS is free to AAHPM members and members can earn up to 3 CME credits quarterly. Following are excerpts from recent issues, and comments from readers are welcomed at resources@aahpm.org.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative StudyScrambler therapy may relieve chronic neuropathic pain more effectively than guideline-based drug management: results of a pilot, randomized, controlled trial.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2012
Palliative care services in California hospitals: program prevalence and hospital characteristics.
In 2000, 17% of California hospitals offered palliative care (PC) services. Since then, hospital-based PC programs have become increasingly common, and preferred practices for these services have been proposed by expert consensus. ⋯ Although the number of hospital-based PC services in California has doubled since 2000, more than half of the acute care hospitals still do not provide PC services. Developing initiatives that target small, public, and investor-owned hospitals may lead to wider availability of PC services.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2012
Pain in patients attending a specialist cancer service: prevalence and association with emotional distress.
We know little about how many outpatients of a modern cancer center suffer from clinically significant unrelieved pain and the characteristics of these patients to guide better care. ⋯ CSP is surprisingly common in outpatients of specialist cancer services, and it is strongly and independently associated with emotional distress. Better symptom management should consider pain and distress together.