by Dr Mark Taubert @DrMarkTaubert Clinical Director for Palliative Medicine, Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff There are three good reasons for writing this little essay about the spectre of grief: 1) It is contemporary and topical – for instance, we are in the midst of Dying Matters Awareness week. 2) I have recently spoken to a […]
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Cost analysis of a prospective multi-site cohort study of palliative care consultation teams for adults with advanced cancer: Where do cost-savings come from? May P, Garrido MM, Cassel JB, Kelley AS, Meier DE, Normand C, Smith TJ, Morrison RS. Palliat Med. 2017 Apr;31(4):378-386. A prospective multi-site cohort study in three US hospitals included 863 […]
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Comparing the symptom experience of cancer patients and non-cancer patients. Deshields TL, Penalba V, Liu J, Avery J. Support Care Cancer. 2017 Apr;25(4):1103-1109. This study focussed on symptom burden of 301 consecutive patients from a general medical clinic and 558 cancer patients from a tumour registry who completed the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale. Results […]
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Predictors of Complicated Grief and Depression in Bereaved Caregivers: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study. Nielsen MK, Neergaard MA, Jensen AB, et al. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Mar;53(3):540-550 A prospective survey of 3635 caregivers to terminally ill patients in Denmark was conducted. 2420 were bereaved within six months and of the survey, 2125 (88%) […]
The four weddings and a funeral guide to the updated palliative care currency
by Dr Ollie Minton, Macmillan consultant and honorary senior lecturer in palliative medicine. I can’t quote the line for obvious reasons but as I trawled through the extensive analysis of the proposed currency I channelled Hugh Grant as Charles looking at his alarm clock at the start of the film. The opening iconic scene of […]
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A systematic review of prognostic factors at the end of life for people with a hematological malignancy. Button E, Chan RJ, Chambers S, Butler J, Yates P. BMC Cancer. 2017 Mar 23;17(1):213. This systematic review looked at identifying prognostic factors in the last 3 months of life that are associated with increased risk of […]
News and updates from www.palliativedrugs.com
07/04/2017 Selected items from the News and Latest Additions sections of www.palliativedrugs.com, the world’s leading palliative care website with over 30,000 members from 169 Countries. Hot topics Cochrane review: pharmacological interventions for pruritus in adult palliative care patients In this update to the original review in 2013, the authors concluded that there were was low–moderate […]
The new Respect form- Aretha Franklin and our odd relationship with forms
Dr Ollie Minton, Consultant in Palliative Medicine Maybe I should not listen to BBC Radio 4 as much as I do, although it is always stimulating and often leads to debate. This is especially true of the Today program where the “vexed issue” of DNACPR (Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) was recently discussed. However the […]
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Caregivers’ Perspectives on the Use of Long-Term Oxygen Therapy for the Treatment of Refractory Breathlessness: A Qualitative Study Aileen Collier, Katrina Breaden, Jane L. Phillips, Meera Agar, Caroline Litster, David C. Currow. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2017 Jan;53(1):33-39. A qualitative study of the perspectives of 20 caregivers in the palliative setting of patients on […]
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Prevalence of cancer chemotherapy-related problems, their relation to health-related quality of life and associated supportive care: a cross-sectional survey. Wagland, Richardson A, Ewings S, Armes J, Lennan E, Hankins M, Griffiths P. Support Care Cancer. 2016 Dec;24(12):4901-4911. This study surveyed the prevalence of 17 problems whilst undergoing chemotherapy and people’s experiences of supportive care […]