Presse Med
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Prescription of medicines by telephone (PMT) in the call Center 15 is a reality, but has never been studied. ⋯ The PMT at the center 15 is realized in one third of cases. This work helps highlight the shortcomings of the practice in terms of safety and security requirement of the proceedings against the recommendations of the French High Authority for Health.
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Distress and suffering are words currently used in the medical vocabulary, the first carrying a more acute and dramatic feature, while suffering is more subjective. They may concern the somatic, psychic, social, and spiritual domains, with interactions such as excrutiating and unrelieved pain causing psychological distress. Distress during the end of life is induced by the threatening of an unavoidable death, more or less foreseen by the patient. ⋯ Deep continuous sedation maintained until death may be viewed as a psychic and social euthanasia, ethically questionable, and should be foreseen only in case of intractable distress. A controlled and reversible sedation, when needed, should be preferred, always with the agreement of the patient or his/her proxy. Existential distress by itself should not justify a deep continuous sedation.