Palliative medicine
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Palliative medicine · Sep 1999
ReviewDevelopment of a breathlessness assessment guide for use in palliative care.
The complex nature of breathlessness in advanced cancer makes it a difficult symptom to understand and control. Measurement instruments applied to breathlessness have thus far failed to consider the multivariant components of this symptom. ⋯ The guide aims to encourage breathlessness to be addressed as a multidimensional problem, in which the emotional experience of breathlessness is inseparable from the sensory experience and the causative biological mechanisms. This guide provides the foundation for understanding the symptom of breathlessness in advanced cancer, and in turn promotes the development of management strategies to deal with this complex symptom.
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Palliative medicine · Sep 1999
Acute care palliative medicine: psychosocial assessment of patients and primary caregivers.
This paper describes the application of an empirically-derived psychosocial assessment for use in advanced cancer. The patient population selected for this study was those patients no longer pursuing aggressive antitumour treatment, and the focus of care was on management of major symptoms and complications, and psychosocial support of the patient and family. ⋯ Through this assessment of all patients admitted to our inpatient palliative medicine unit, care needs were identified and psychosocial interventions planned. The results of 150 assessments are reported, as well as observations of the process, implications for psychosocial care and modifications of the assessment based on this experience.
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Palliative medicine · Jul 1999
The applicability of quality-of-life assessment in palliative care: comparing two quality-of-life measures.
Two self-administered quality-of-life measures, the McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL) and the Patient Evaluated Problem Scores (PEPS) were compared in patients receiving palliative care. The MQOL is a multidimensional questionnaire consisting of 16 items in five quality-of-life (QOL) domains: physical symptoms, physical well-being, psychological, existential and support domains. The PEPS is an individualized questionnaire asking patients to identify and rate major problems affecting their QOL. ⋯ The findings support the importance of an existential domain in assessing the QOL of this population. Both MQOL and PEPS were found to be relevant and acceptable in advanced cancer patients receiving palliative care. However, with its favourable psychometric properties MQOL may be more suitable for QOL assessment in this population.