International journal of clinical practice
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Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Nov 2013
Clinical and ethical challenges of palliative sedation therapy. The need for clear guidance and professional competencies.
Palliative sedation therapy (PST) has become a frequent practice in end-of-life care and advocated in the literature as a less problematic alternative to practices of physician-assisted dying, such as ending patients' lives on request or assisted suicide. However, in clinical practice, patients, healthcare professionals and other parties involved in decisions about PST are facing numerous clinical and ethical challenges. This perspective aims to analyse important challenges associated with professional decision-making about PST and to explore the recommendations of guidelines, which have been published in recent years.
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Int. J. Clin. Pract. · Nov 2013
Illicit drug use and cardiometabolic disease risk: an analysis of 2005-2008 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data.
To explore the association between illicit drug use (IDU) and cardiometabolic disease risk factors (CDRF) in a nationally representative sample of adults. ⋯ Results from this study suggest that healthcare professionals should be aware that patients with a history of DU may be at heightened risk for cardiometabolic disease. Females in particular have a heightened cluster of CDRF across drug-use categories.
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As people are living longer, dementia is becoming a significant issue for society. Dementia is now recognised as a major concern in society, and the numbers of people estimated to have dementia in the UK population appear to have stabilised at around 700,000. ⋯ Given the absence of treatments that significantly alter the natural history of the clinical syndrome of dementia, there has been increased emphasis on early diagnosis, with research exploring assessment tools and biomarkers that might predict with certainty a particular clinical outcome. At the same time, there has been pressure to focus on biomedical profiles, which assume a very close link between the pathobiology and the manifest clinical syndrome.