Update in Hospice and Palliative Care

Abstract

Introduction T he goal of this update in hospice and palliative care is to summarize and critique research articles published in 2012 that have the highest potential for impact on clinical practice. To identify articles published between January 1 and December 31, 2012, we hand-searched 22 leading journals, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1 and Fast Article Critical Summaries for Clinicians in Palliative Care. 2 We also performed a PubMed keyword search using the terms ''hospice'' and ''palliative care.'' We ranked candidate articles based on study quality, scientific merit, topic area, and potential for impact on the clinical practice of hospice and palliative care. Here we summarize the findings of 10 articles with the highest ratings, and make recommendations for clinical practice based on the strength of the resulting evidence (Table 1).

Cancer-Related Pain and Pain Management

“…It is worth noting that pain management differs in the palliative phase of the disease, as during the end-of-life stages treatment is focused primarily on improving the quality of life and is often associated with less aggressive treatments (Roza, Horton, Johnson, & Anderson, 2014). Conversely, treatment plans preceding the palliative phase are primarily curative often at the cost of quality of life.…”