In their February editorial, the PLoS Medicine Editors reflect on recent research by Olav Lindqvist and colleagues which describes nonpharmacological palliative care for cancer patients in the last days of life. The qualitative study found that the ap…
Everyone has to die one day, yet often the issue of death and dying still remains a taboo, despite the fact that palliative care is a major public health issue. An international study in this week’s PLoS Medicine shows that those working in palliative …
The vast majority of patients with incurable lung or colorectal cancer talk with a physician about their options for care at the end of life, but often not until late in the course of their illness, according to a new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Instit…
If you think palliative care and the ICU don’t go together, think again. The importance and potential benefits of palliative care to ease suffering and improve quality of life for patients being treated in hospital intensive care units (ICUs) has recei…
Although around two thirds of us would prefer to die at home, in the developed world the trend in recent years has been for the majority to spend their final days in an institutional setting. But according to new research available in the journal Palli…
Research published online in one of BMJ Group’s newest additions, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care showed that parents who suffered the loss of a child during its first 12 months of life have a significantly higher risk of premature death for 25 years …
Hospice services substantially improved the provision of care and support for nursing home patients dying of dementia and their families, according to an analysis of survey responses from hundreds of bereaved family members. The research comes as hospi…
People mistakenly think hospice care is about dying… you call hospice when nothing more can be done. Nothing could be further from the truth. Hospice of the Western Reserve focuses on life by bringing comfort, dignity and peace to those facing seriou…
University at Buffalo School of Social Work Professor Deborah P. Waldrop has seen people die. Too often, their lives have ended in pain and despair, spending their final days in an alienating institutional environment, just another patient in an impers…
