Journal of pain and symptom management
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2015
ReviewA Systematic Review of the Use of the Palliative Care Outcome Scale (POS) and the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS) in Palliative Care.
The Palliative care Outcome Scale (POS) and the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS) are two outcome measures used in palliative care settings to assess palliative concerns, needs, and quality of care. ⋯ The POS and STAS are now used in a wide variety of settings and countries. These tools may be used in the future to compare palliative care needs and quality of care across diverse contexts and patient groups.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2015
ReviewImpact of Cancer and Its Treatment on Cognitive Function: Advances in Research from the Paris International Cognition and Cancer Task Force Symposium and Update Since 2012.
Although cognitive impairments have been identified in patients with non-central nervous system cancer, especially breast cancer, the respective roles of cancer and therapies, and the mechanisms involved in cognitive dysfunction remain unclear. ⋯ Clinical data and animal models confirmed that chemotherapy induces direct cognitive deficit. The benefits of cognitive rehabilitation are still to be confirmed. Studies evaluating the mechanisms underlying cognitive impairments using advanced neuroimaging techniques integrating the evaluation of genetic factors are ongoing.
-
Palliative care, including symptom management and attention to quality of life (QOL) concerns, should be addressed throughout the trajectory of a serious illness such as lung cancer. ⋯ Interdisciplinary palliative care in the ambulatory care setting resulted in significant improvements in QOL, symptoms, and distress for NSCLC patients.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2015
Mediating Effect of Family Caregivers' Hesitancy to Use Analgesics on Homecare Cancer Patients' Analgesic Adherence.
Family caregivers play an increasingly critical role in cancer patients' symptom management as the number of cancer patients receiving home care grows. However, there is a lack of research measuring the impact of the family caregivers' hesitancy to use analgesics on analgesic adherence and the resulting influence on patient pain intensity. ⋯ This study showed that family caregivers' hesitancy to use analgesics was a significant mediator associated with their hesitancy to use analgesics and the patients' analgesic adherence. It is important for health care providers to consider family caregivers' hesitancy to use analgesics when attempting to improve adherence to pain management regimens in clinical practice.
-
J Pain Symptom Manage · Dec 2015
Coping Responses Among Hospice Family Caregivers: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis.
Hospice family caregivers must often cope with significant stressors. Research into the ways caregivers attempt to cope with these stressors has been challenged by pronounced difficulties conceptualizing, measuring, and categorizing caregiver coping. ⋯ Despite its broad appeal, grouping ways of coping responses into families of coping based on the presupposed nature of the responses (e.g., positive or negative) lacked empirical support for this sample of hospice family caregivers, which suggests that relying on families of coping may oversimplify complex responses from caregivers. Rather than trying to characterize coping responses into broader families, hospice support for caregiver coping strategies may be more effective when based on individualized assessments of each caregiver's ways of coping and the consequences of those coping responses on their quality of life.