Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Oct 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialCan senior volunteers deliver reminiscence and creative activity interventions? Results of the legacy intervention family enactment randomized controlled trial.
Palliative care patients and their family caregivers may have a foreshortened perspective of the time left to live, or the expectation of the patient's death in the near future. Patients and caregivers may report distress in physical, psychological, or existential/spiritual realms. ⋯ Delivery of the intervention by RSVs had a positive impact on palliative care patients' emotional symptoms and burden and caregivers' meaning in life. Meaningful prolonged engagement with palliative care patients and caregivers, possibly through alternative modes of treatment delivery such as continued RSV contact, may be necessary for maintenance of therapeutic effects.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2014
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyA randomized trial of weekly symptom telemonitoring in advanced lung cancer.
Lung cancer patients experience multiple, simultaneous symptoms related to their disease and treatment that impair functioning and health-related quality of life (HRQL). Computer technology can reduce barriers to nonsystematic, infrequent symptom assessment and potentially contribute to improved patient care. ⋯ Feasibility of using a technology-based system for systematic symptom monitoring in advanced lung cancer patients was demonstrated. Future research should focus on identifying patients most likely to benefit and other patient, provider, and health system factors likely to contribute to the system's success.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialA randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of fentanyl buccal tablets for breakthrough pain: efficacy and safety in Japanese cancer patients.
Rapid-onset opioids for treating breakthrough pain (BTP) in patients with cancer are needed in the Japanese care setting. ⋯ The safety of FBT and its analgesic effect on BTP were confirmed in Japanese cancer patients receiving opioids. Our findings suggest that analgesic onset may occur from 15 minutes after FBT, and that FBT can be administered to patients with low doses of ATC opioids.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Apr 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialThe affective dimension of dyspnea improves in a dyspnea self-management program with exercise training.
The perception of dyspnea includes both sensory and affective dimensions that are shaped by emotions and psychological, social, and environmental experiences. Previous investigators have studied either measurement or strategies to decrease the affective dimension with laboratory-induced dyspnea. Few have reported the effect of a therapeutic clinical intervention on the affective dimension of dyspnea. ⋯ These findings provide initial support for the positive impact of a self-management program with nurse-coached exercise on the affective dimension of dyspnea. Further investigation of interventions that target the affective dimension in addition to the sensory dimension of dyspnea should be encouraged.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Mar 2014
Randomized Controlled TrialOlanzapine for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting in patients receiving highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) can severely impair patients' quality of life (QOL). Psychotropics, especially olanzapine, have a strong antiemetic effect. ⋯ The addition of 5mg/day of oral olanzapine to standard therapy can reduce the frequency of CINV and improve QOL of patients receiving highly or moderately emetogenic chemotherapy.