Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2017
Validation of the Korean version of the breakthrough pain assessment tool in cancer patients.
Breakthrough cancer pain has not been properly evaluated and treated because there are relatively few available measurements. The Breakthrough Pain Assessment Tool (BAT) is currently recognized as a brief, multidimensional, and reliable measurement. ⋯ The BAT-K is a valid and reliable measurement of breakthrough cancer pain in Korean cancer patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2017
Isolation and Suffering Related to Serious and Terminal Illness: Metaphors and Lessons from Albert Camus' Novel, The Plague.
Health care providers have much to learn from Albert Camus' great novel, The Plague. The Plague tells the story of a bubonic plague epidemic through the lens of doctor-narrator Rieux. ⋯ Camus' masterful engagement of the metaphor of isolation and its profound impact on suffering emphasizes the important role of community and spiritual perspectives of patients and providers in coping with serious illness, death, and dying. The Plague is relevant today, particularly given the challenges of distancing, alienation, and isolation imposed by not only disease but also by technology and clinical and administrative practices that have unintended consequences of incentivizing separation between patient and healer, thus engendering greater stress and suffering in both.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2017
Review Meta AnalysisThe effect of communication skills training for generalist palliative care providers on patient-reported outcomes and clinician behaviours: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
As most end-of-life care is provided by health care providers who are generalists rather than specialists in palliative care, effective communication skills training for generalists is essential. ⋯ CRD42014014777.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2017
ReviewExploring genetic attributions underlying radiotherapy-induced fatigue in prostate cancer patients.
Despite numerous proposed mechanisms, no definitive pathophysiology underlying radiotherapy-induced fatigue (RIF) has been established. However, the dysregulation of a set of 35 genes was recently validated to predict development of fatigue in prostate cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. ⋯ The implications of herein presented RIF pathways are purely theoretical until specific end-point driven experiments are conducted in more congruent contexts. Nevertheless, the presented attributions are informative, directing future investigation to definitively elucidate RIF's pathoetiology. This study demonstrates an arguably comprehensive method of approaching known differential expression underlying a complex phenotype, to correlate feasible pathophysiology.