Der Schmerz
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Comparative Study
[Pain management in international curricula for undergraduate education in palliative medicine. A palliative education assessment tool (PEAT) analysis].
In the context of undergraduate medical education, there is the question of overlap between palliative medicine and pain management. International curricula for palliative medicine were analyzed with regard to the content concerning pain management. ⋯ Pain-related objectives are regularly mentioned in international undergraduate palliative medicine curricula. The extent is limited and therefore the concordance to general pain management is low.
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KEDOQ-Schmerz was developed by the German Pain Society (formerly DGSS) as a basic tool for documentation and quality management of pain therapy. It is planned to use KEDOQ-Schmerz as the data basis for nationwide, cross-sectional and independent scientific research in health services in Germany. With comparatively little effort, each participating institution (practices, pain clinics) will be able to provide quality control of their own diagnostic procedures and therapeutic effects by using benchmarking. In future KEDOQ-Schmerz will also be used as a method for external quality management in pain therapy in Germany.
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Recurrent abdominal pain is one of the most frequent pain syndromes in childhood and is accompanied by notable functional impairment and unfavourable long-term outcome. Psychotherapeutic approaches are promising, but not widely used in Germany. The concept of a multimodal short-term intervention and its acceptance are described and preliminary results are reported. ⋯ Preliminary results indicate that even short psychotherapeutic interventions might help affected children effectively and lower the burden felt by parents. Further investigations using a randomized controlled trial design and focussing on children suffering more severely should follow to allow major conclusions.
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Comparative Study
[Well-being of patients receiving specialized palliative care at home or in hospital].
A major goal of palliative care is sustaining quality of life (QoL) for patients suffering from severe symptoms, which is determined by physical and psychological consequences of an illness as well as other factors, such as the meaning of life and family support. Patients have reported high levels of QoL despite worsening symptoms. The self-estimated QoL of patients receiving outpatient and inpatient palliative care was analyzed using retrospective data from the German Hospice and Palliative Care Evaluation (HOPE). ⋯ While tiredness and weakness influenced QoL especially for outpatients, patient-specific factors may surpass them in patient perception. To improve the QoL of palliative care patients, individual factors must be assessed in addition to symptom control.