Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2018
Multicenter Study Observational StudyFactors Associated with Attrition in a Multicenter Longitudinal Observational Study of Patients with Advanced Cancer.
Attrition is common in longitudinal observational studies in palliative care. Few studies have examined predictors of attrition. ⋯ Advanced cancer patients with cognitive failure, increased physical symptoms, poorer performance status, and shorter duration from cancer diagnosis were more likely to dropout. These results have implications for research design, patient selection, and data interpretation in longitudinal observational studies.
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PC-FACS (Fast Article Critical Summaries for Clinicians in Palliative Care) provides hospice and palliative care clinicians with concise summaries of the most important findings from more than 100 medical and scientific journals. If you have colleagues who would benefit from receivingPC-FACS, please encourage them to join the AAHPM at aahpm.org. Comments from readers are welcomed at pc-facs@aahpm.org.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2018
Clinical TrialPilot Testing of a Brief Couple-Based Mind-Body Intervention for Patients With Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer and Their Partners.
Given the generally incurable nature of metastatic lung cancer, patients and their spouses/partners are at risk for psychological and spiritual distress. To address this concern, we developed a couple-based mind-body (CBMB) intervention. ⋯ Based on these results, the CBMB intervention appears to be acceptable and subjectively useful. In addition, we observed preliminary evidence of quality of life gains in both patients and their partners.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2018
The diagnostic sensitivity of the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS) - Spanish version.
Although Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS) is a successful tool for delirium evaluation and monitoring, it is nevertheless important to determine whether cutoff scores vary according to the studied population. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic sensitivity of the recently validated Spanish version of the MDAS. The secondary objective was to analyze possible diagnostic differences when used in a hospice or general hospital setting. ⋯ A screening cutoff of 7 appears to be optimal for MDAS Spanish version. No differences were found between advanced cancer patients cared for in a hospice or general hospital. However, more research is required to define the MDAS cutoff for patients with advanced cancer and dementia.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2018
Body Composition Early Identifies Cancer Patients with Radiotherapy at Risk for Malnutrition.
The side effects of radiotherapy (RT) and the occurrence of comorbidity often result in appetite loss in patients, which leads to serious nutritional problems, significantly affecting the patients' treatment results and disease prognosis. ⋯ Body composition analysis can be used to promptly and effectively monitor changes in the nutritional status of patients with cancer during the cancer treatment period; changes in the body composition at different repetitions differ between patients with dissimilar cancers.