Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
ReviewQuality of life and symptom burden improve in patients attending a multidisciplinary clinical service for cancer cachexia: a retrospective observational review.
Cancer cachexia negatively affects quality of life (QoL) and increases symptom burden. A multimodal treatment approach may optimize cachexia outcomes, including QoL. We evaluated QoL and symptoms over time among patients attending a multidisciplinary clinical service for cancer cachexia. ⋯ Significant improvements in QoL and symptoms were associated with attending a cancer cachexia clinical service. Our findings support using multidisciplinary, multimodal cancer cachexia treatment approaches to improve patient wellbeing.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Characteristics of palliative care publications by South American authors in the last 20 years: Systematic literature review with bibliometric analysis.
Research on palliative care (PC) can be used as a direct measure to assess the level of PC development in a country or region. ⋯ This bibliometric review identified an annual increase of 14% in the number of scientific publications by researchers from South America over the last 20 years. Although Brazil produced the most articles, Chile, had the most efficient scientific production. In general, the articles had low potential for scientific impact.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Genetic Predictors of Response to Acupuncture or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia in Cancer Survivors: An Exploratory Analysis.
Insomnia is a common problem affecting cancer survivors. While effective nonpharmacological treatments are available, it is unknown whether individual genetic characteristics influence treatment response. ⋯ In cancer survivors, specific variants in the COMT and NFKB2 genes are potentially associated with response to acupuncture but not to CBT-I. Confirming these preliminary results will help inform precision insomnia management for cancer survivors.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Quality indicators in surgical palliative care: a systematic review.
Defining high quality palliative care in seriously ill surgical patients is essential to provide patient-centered surgical care. Quality indicators specifically for seriously ill surgical patients are necessary in order to integrate palliative care into existing surgical quality improvement programs. ⋯ This review was a key step that informed efforts to develop quality indicators for seriously ill surgical patients. Few indicators addressed non-physical aspects of suffering and no indicators were identified addressing palliative surgery. Future attention is needed toward the development and practical application of palliative care quality indicators in surgical patients.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2021
Validation of the Chinese Version of the Quality of Dying and Death Questionnaire for Family Members of ICU Patients.
The quality of end-of-life care services directly affects the end-of-life quality of life of patients and their families. At present, there are no standard tools in China for assessing the quality of dying and death (QODD) of critical intensive care unit (ICU) patients. ⋯ The Chinese version of the QODD questionnaire for family members of ICU patients is a reliable and effective instrument for evaluating the quality of death among patients who die in the ICU and can be applied to clinical practice and research.