Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Development and preliminary testing of the quality of spiritual care scale.
The provision of spiritual care is considered a key element of hospice and palliative care, but there is a paucity of empirically developed quality-of-care measures in this domain. ⋯ Preliminary testing of the QSC scale suggests that it is a valid and reliable outcome measure of the quality of spiritual care at the end of life.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Dying with dementia: symptoms, treatment, and quality of life in the last week of life.
Burdensome symptoms present frequently in dementia at the end of life, but we know little about the symptom control provided, such as type and dosage of medication. ⋯ Symptoms are common in dementia at the end of life, despite the large majority of residents receiving opioids. Dosages may be suboptimal with regard to weighing of effects and side effects. Future research may employ observation on a day-to-day basis to better assess effectiveness of symptom control and possible side effects.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Prognostication based on the change in the palliative prognostic index for patients with terminal cancer.
The use of the Palliative Prognostic Index (PPI) in relation to the clinical time course has not yet been established. ⋯ Our data suggest that the ΔPPI may be useful for predicting the survival of terminally ill cancer patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Proteomic serum profile of fatigued men receiving localized external beam radiation therapy for non-metastatic prostate cancer.
Fatigue is the most distressing side effect of radiation therapy, and its progression etiology is unknown. ⋯ These ApoE, ApoA1, and TTR results may assist in understanding pathways that can explain fatigue progression etiology in this clinical population.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Symptom burden clusters: a challenge for targeted symptom management. A longitudinal study examining symptom burden clusters in breast cancer.
Although there has been a growing interest in cancer symptom clusters, less is known about symptom burden clusters. ⋯ This study provides insights into symptom burden clusters over time. A challenging approach toward symptom management in clinical oncology is to target the burden of a symptom cluster and to recognize the need for individually designed interventions to ameliorate symptom burden in cancer patients.