Palliative medicine
-
Palliative medicine · Feb 2017
Measuring the quality of life of people at the end of life: The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire-Revised.
The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire has been widely used with people with life-threatening illnesses without modification since its publication in 1996. With use, areas for improvement have emerged; therefore, various minor modifications were tested over time. ⋯ The McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire-Revised improves on and can replace the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire since it contains improved wording, a somewhat expanded repertoire of concepts with fewer items, and a single subscale for the physical domain, while retaining good psychometric properties.
-
Palliative medicine · Feb 2017
Lay and professional stakeholder involvement in scoping palliative care issues: Methods used in seven European countries.
Stakeholders are people with an interest in a topic. Internationally, stakeholder involvement in palliative care research and health technology assessment requires development. Stakeholder involvement adds value throughout research (from prioritising topics to disseminating findings). Philosophies and understandings about the best ways to involve stakeholders in research differ internationally. Stakeholder involvement took place in seven countries (England, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway and Poland). Findings informed a project that developed concepts and methods for health technology assessment and applied these to evaluate models of palliative care service delivery. ⋯ Stakeholders, including patients and families undergoing palliative care, can inform project decision making using various involvement methods according to the local context. Researchers should consider local understandings about stakeholder involvement as views of appropriate and feasible methods vary. Methods for stakeholder involvement, especially consultation, need further development.
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 2017
Randomized Controlled TrialExperiences of patients and caregivers with early palliative care: A qualitative study.
Early palliative care improves quality of life and satisfaction with care and is increasingly endorsed for patients with advanced cancer. However, little is known about the experience of receiving early palliative care from a patient and caregiver perspective. ⋯ The elements of care described by participants may be used to develop, support and refine models of early palliative care for patients with cancer.
-
Palliative medicine · Jan 2017
ReviewMetamizole/dipyrone for the relief of cancer pain: A systematic review and evidence-based recommendations for clinical practice.
Dipyrone (metamizole) is one of the most widely used non-opioid analgesics for the treatment of cancer pain. ⋯ Dipyrone can be recommended for the treatment of cancer pain as an alternative to other non-opioids either alone or in combination with opioids. It can be preferred over non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs due to the presumably favorable side effect profile in long-term use, but comparative studies are not available for long-term use.