Symptom Relief In Palliative Care

Fully revised and updated, this remains the definitive guide to palliative care symptom relief for professionals in varied caring environments.

Doctors, nurses and all healthcare professionals dealing with patients with advanced and terminal disease will find this book essential reading.

This established and well-regarded Guide describes the management of patients with advanced disease. Its foundation is a clinical decision-making approach in which the patient's information guides the professional's approach to appropriate management. This Sixth Edition has been fully updated, reflecting the latest advances in knowledge and care of cancer and non-cancer patients with advanced disease, including children and people with severe communication difficulties. Sections on symptoms other than pain and emergencies are set out alphabetically, with the Emergencies section now located at the end of the book for ease of reference. The Drug Information section has been extensively updated, and colour and design refinements introduced throughout for greater clarity and emphasis. All references continue to be categorised to make their evidence base clearer. Maintaining the high standard set by previous editions over the past quarter-century, this continues to be the definitive guide to palliative care symptom relief for professionals in a wide variety of caring environments.

Considers what can - and should - be done to comfort patients suffering from the distressing symptoms of advanced cancer. Prepared by nine renowned experts in oncology, neurology, pain management and nursing care, the book draws together the evidence and arguments needed to define clear lines of action, whether on the part of the medical and nursing professions or in the form of national legislation. Throughout, arguments for palliative care take their force from the magnitude of unrelieved suffering currently borne by the majority of terminally ill patients. Although methods for the relief of pain are emphasized, other physical, psychological, and spiritual needs for comfort are also included in the report's comprehensive recommendations. The concept of palliative care is explained in terms of its concern with quality of life and comfort before death, emphasis on the family as the unit of care, dependence on teamwork, and relationship to curative interventions. Subsequent sections concentrate on measures for the relief of pain and other physical symptoms, the psychosocial needs of the patient and family, and the need for spiritual comfort. A section devoted to ethics provides several important statements concerning the legal and ethical distinction between killing the pain and killing the patient, and the need to recognize the limits of medicine. ..". crammed with very valuable information ... an altogether excellent book..." - Family Practice ..". a comprehensive report on cancer pain relief and active supportive care ... a valuable reference for those specializing in cancer care and for the generalist caring for dying patients..." - Nursing and Health care WHO definition of palliative care

The second edition of a guide, which introduced a simple, yet highly effective method for the relief of cancer pain. Thoroughly revised and updated, the new edition further refines the WHO method, which advocates the use of a small number of relatively inexpensive drugs, including morphine. Revisions draw on experiences with millions of patients around the world as well as new knowledge about the specific pain syndromes unique to cancer. Completely new are chapters describing the international system by which morphine and other opioids are made available for medical purposes. The book has two parts. Part one provides a practical guide to the relief of cancer pain, concentrating on drug treatment as the mainstay of pain management. The most extensive section sets out detailed guidelines for the selection and prescribing of non-opioid analgesics, opioid analgesics, drugs for neuropathic pain, and adjuvant drugs for the treatment of adverse effects, the enhancement of pain relief and the management of concomitant psychological disturbances. Information ranges from explanations of how specific drugs work, through the precautions to take in the presence of certain disorders, to a list of factors that influence the effectiveness of opioids. Concerning the use of opioids, readers are reminded that psychological dependence does not occur in cancer patients and that the only correct dose of morphine is the one that relieves the pain. Part two provides a guide to opioid availability. A discussion of the reasons why opioids continue to be underprescribed or difficult to obtain is followed by an explanation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

This comprehensive revision of the invaluable reference presents a rigorous survey of pain and palliative care phenomena across the lifespan and across disciplines. Grounded in the biopsychosocial viewpoint of its predecessor, it offers up-to-date understanding of assessments and interventions for pain, the communication of pain, common pain conditions and their mechanisms, and research and policy issues. In keeping with the current public attention to painkiller use and misuse, contributors discuss a full range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological approaches to pain relief and management. And palliative care is given expanded coverage, with chapters on interventive, ethical, and spiritual concerns. · Pain, intercultural communication, and narrative medicine. · Assessment of pain: tools, challenges, and special populations. · Persistent pain in the older adult: practical considerations for evaluation and management. · Acute to chronic pain: transition in the post-surgical patient. · Evidence-based pharmacotherapy of chronic pain. · Complementary and integrative health in chronic pain and palliative care. · The patient’s perspective of chronic pain. · Disparities in pain and pain care. This mix of evolving and emerging topics makes the Second Edition of the Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care a necessity for health practitioners specializing in pain management or palliative care, clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals, and clinicians and administrators in long-term care and hospice.

Janet L. Abrahm argues that all causes of suffering experienced by people with cancer, be they physical, psychological, social, or spiritual, should be treated at all stages: at diagnosis, during curative therapy, in the event that cancer recurs, and during the final months. In the second edition of this symptom-oriented guide, she provides primary care physicians, advanced practice nurses, internists and oncologists with detailed information and advice for alleviating the stress and pain of patients and family members alike. The new edition includes the latest information on patient and family communication and counseling, on medical, surgical, and complementary and alternative treatments for symptoms caused by cancer and cancer treatments, and on caring for patients in the last days and their bereaved families. Updated case histories, medication tables, Practice Points, and bibliographies provide clinicians with the information they need to treat their cancer patients effectively and compassionately.

This updated second edition of Diagnosis and Management of Ovarian Disorders provides thorough, yet succinct insight into the ever-changing realm of ovarian disorders. It presents a novel multidisciplinary approach to the subject as described by clinicians, surgeons, pathologists, basic scientists and related medical researchers. Topics covered include reproductive technology, early diagnosis of ovarian cancer, and management of menopause among others. The breadth of information provided by this book will appeal to clinicians and researchers involved in the study and treatment of ovarian disorders. KEY FEATURES* Includes updated information on early diagnosis of ovarian cancer* Reviews new diagnostic techniques for ovarian disorders* Discusses latest information on reproductive technology* Presents translational treatment linking laboratory research with clinical medicine

This is an updated guide to the range of drugs commonly unused in the treatment of psychiatric disorders. There have been many significant changes in drug treatment over the last few years, and "Basic Notes in Psychopharmacology" provides an overview of both new and old drugs, their mode of action, indications and adverse effects. The four sections of the book deal with hypnotic and anxiolytic drugs, antipsychotic drugs, antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers. The book should be a useful guide for all those involved in the use of drugs in psychiatry. In particular, junior doctors, general practitioners and medical students should find it valuable as an introduction to this complex and rapidly changing area as well as a useful revision aid for examinations. However, psychiatric nurses, psychiatric social workers and psychiatric occupational therapists and clinical psychologists should also find the book an asset.