Evidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care

Make your patients’final days as comfortable as possible!There are few situations more challenging and emotionally taxing to a medical professional than the care of the terminally ill. Much has been learned in recent years about symptom control that can profoundly improve the quality of life in a patient's final days.Evidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care: Systemic Reviews and Validated Clinical Practice Guidelines for 15 Common Problems in Patients with Life Limiting Disease provides you with symptom control approaches that will help meet patients’last wishes, improve the quality of life for patients and their families, and lessen their physical and emotional pain. Palliative care--often based on anecdotal experience--has until now been inconsistent and much of the time less than optimally effective. Evidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care is the result of comprehensive literature reviews and clinical validation resulting in recommendations and suggestions for therapies that will improve the lives of patients who are in pain and discomfort. Evidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care presents seven sections--Algorithm, Literature Review, Evidence Tables, Drug Therapy Tables, Evaluation Instruments, Unanswered Questions, and References--on each of these problems:

• anorexia and cachexia
• anxiety
• bleeding problems
• constipation
• delirium
• depression
• diarrhea
• dyspnea (shortness of breath)
• fatigue and weakness
• mouth problems
• nausea and vomiting
• nutrition and hydrationEvidence Based Symptom Control in Palliative Care is a vital guide for physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other clinicians caring for patients with advanced irreversible diseases. This volume supplies the data you'll require to offer patients relevant care and meet their needs.