Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Associations between physicians' personal preferences for end-of-life decisions and their own clinical practice: PROPEL survey study in Europe, North America, and Australia.
Physicians have significant influence on end-of-life decisions. Therefore, it is important to understand the connection between physicians' personal end-of-life care preferences and clinical practice, and whether there is congruence between what they prefer for themselves and for patients. ⋯ Physicians consider their own preferences when providing care and their preferences impact the recommendations they make to patients. Incongruence exists between what physicians prefer for themselves and what they prefer for patients.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Randomized Controlled TrialOrally dissolving pilocarpine tablets for xerostomia in advanced cancer: A pilot N-of-1 feasibility study.
Xerostomia is a common and difficult symptom experienced by patients with cancer. Pilocarpine is a cholinergic agent that stimulates salivation. ⋯ Recruitment to an N-of-1 trial for xerostomia is feasible but attrition was high (50%). Early dropout may have been due to the trial length, complexity, appropriateness or number of questionnaires. Adverse events were generally mild. Two of 10 participants were considered to have benefited from pilocarpine warranting ongoing treatment.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
ReviewWorking with people living with motor neurone disease and the impact on professionals' emotional and psychological well-being: A scoping review.
Integrated multidisciplinary care is required to manage the progressive and debilitating symptoms associated with motor neurone disease. Professionals can find providing the level of care required by this population clinically and emotionally challenging. To support those working with these patients it is important to understand the experience of the entire multidisciplinary team involved and the impact of working with motor neurone disease on their emotional and psychological well-being. ⋯ Positive experiences included job satisfaction, enhanced perspective and receiving gratitude, while negative implications such as stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout also featured. The demands of motor neurone disease patient care, the organisation of services and resources required to meet patient and family needs and the emotional burden for professionals involved, warrant greater recognition in clinical practice, guidelines and future research.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Challenges of regional hospice and palliative care networks: A group discussion study with coordinators and network experts.
Within hospice and palliative care, professionals from various disciplines collaborate to deliver comprehensive care to terminal patients and their relatives. Regional hospice and palliative care networks exist in various countries, aimed at facilitating cooperation among health care providers at a local level. To date, little is known about the challenges faced by these networks. ⋯ Sustainable infrastructure, competent network governance and adequate resources for network members are essential for the success of regional hospice and palliative care networks. To improve networking, funding conditions should be simplified, the involvement of network partners should be improved and network coordinators should receive training in network management.
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Palliative medicine · Feb 2025
Multicenter Study Observational StudyChanges in perception of prognosis in the last year of life of patients with advanced cancer and its associated factors: Longitudinal results of the eQuiPe study.
Many patients with advanced cancer are unaware of their limited prognosis, however little is known about the change in awareness during the last year of their lives. ⋯ Becoming aware of their limited prognosis may make patients with advanced cancer more receptive to start end-of-life discussions. Although some patients prefer not to know their prognosis, it remains important to respectfully explore their preferences and wishes for end-of-life care.