Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
Multicenter StudyBurnout, psychological morbidity and use of coping mechanisms among palliative care practitioners: A multi-centre cross-sectional study.
The prevalence of burnout, psychological morbidity and the use of coping mechanisms among palliative care practitioners in Singapore have not been studied. ⋯ Our results reveal that burnout and psychological morbidity are significant in the palliative care community and demonstrate a need to look at managing long working hours and promoting the use of coping mechanisms to reduce burnout and psychological morbidity.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for lung cancer patients and their partners: Results of a mixed methods pilot study.
Lung cancer patients and partners show high rates of impaired quality of life and heightened distress levels. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has proven to be effective in reducing psychological distress in cancer patients. However, studies barely included lung cancer patients. ⋯ The Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training seemed to be feasible for patients with lung cancer and their partners. A randomized controlled trial is needed to examine the effectiveness of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in reducing psychological distress in lung cancer patients and partners.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 2015
Observational StudyTherapeutic futility in cancer patients at the time of palliative care transition: An analysis with a modified version of the Medication Appropriateness Index.
Palliative Care professionals are often confronted with therapeutic futility, consisting in inappropriate strategies that do not add any advantage to the patient and may actually increase adverse events. Scientific literature concerning this issue is lacking. This article is one of the first to study therapeutic futility specifically at the time of transition to the palliative care setting. ⋯ This article tried to evaluate the main causes of therapeutic futility at the palliative care transition. The principal causes of inappropriateness were absence of clinical indication, clinically significant drug-disease/comorbidity interactions, and incorrect dosage/posology.