Topics in Palliative Care, Volume 5

The rapidly evolving field of Palliative Care focuses on the management of phenomena that produce discomfort and that undermine the quality of life of patients with incurable medical disorders. The interdisciplinary clinical purview includes those factors - physical, psychological, social, and spiritual - that contribute to suffering, undermine the quality of life, and prevent a death with comfort and dignity. Palliative Care is a fundamental part of clinical practice, the "parallel universe" to therapies directed at cure or prolongation of life. All clinicians who treat patients with chronic life threatening diseases are engaged in palliative care, continually attempting to manage complex symptomatology and functional disturbances. The scientific foundation of palliative care is advancing, and similarly, methods are needed to highlight, for practioners at the bedside, the findings of empirical research. Topics in Palliative Care Series is divided into sections that address a range of issues. Addressing aspects of sumptom control, psyshocsoical functioning, spiritual or existential concerns, ethics, and other topics, the chapters in each section review the given area and focus on a small number of salient issues for analysis. The authors present and evaluate existing data, provide a context drawn from clinical and research settings, and integrate knowledge in a manner that is both practical and readable. The specific topics covered in Volume 5 are Cultural issues in Palliative Care, Palliative Care in Geriatrics, Communication Issues in Palliative Care, Outcomes Research in Palliative Care, Opiod Tolerance; Reality of Myth?, and Pain and other symptoms: Treatment Challenges.

Section 1: Cultural Issues in Palliative Care, 1: Carleen Brenneis and Eduardo Bruera: Models for the Delivery of Palliative Care: The Canadian Model, 2: Marcos Gomez Sancho: Models for the Delivery of Palliative Care: The Spanish Model, 3: Mariela Bertolino: Models for the Delivery of Palliative Care in Developing Countries, Section. Part 2: Palliative Care in Geriatrics. 1: R. Sean Morrison and Diane Meier: Palliative Care and Geriatrics: Is a Special Model of Care Needed?, 2: Yosuke Uchitomi: Truth Telling in Cancer Care: The Japanese Perspective, 3: Akira Akabayashi and Raymond Voltz: Advance Directives in Different Cultures, 4: Wendy Stein: Assessment of Symptoms in the Cognitively Impaired, Section. Part 4: Outcomes Research in Palliative Care. 1: S. Robin Cohen: Quality of Life as an Outcome in Palliative Care: What Is It and How Do We Measure It?, 2: Laurie Lyckholm and Thomas J. Smith: Economic Outcomes and Palliative Care, 3: Franco De Conno and Cinzia Martini: Symptom Assessment Outcomes in Home-Based Palliative Care, Section. Part 5: Opioid Tolerance. Reality or Myth?, 1: Leia Phioanh Nghiemphu and Russell K. Portenoy: Opioid Tolerance: Clinical Perspective, 2: Sebastiano Mercadante: Problems with Opioid Dose Escalation in Cancer Pain: Differential Diagnosis and Management Strategies, Section. Part 6: Pain and Other Symptomes. Treatment Challenges, 1: Peter Lawlor, Jose Pereira, and Eduardo Bruera: Dose Ratios Among Different Opioids: Underlying Issues and an Update on the Use of the Equianalgesic Table, 2: Magnus Sjberg and Narinder Rawal: Intraspinal Pain Therapy in Palliative Care, 3: William Breitbart: The Diagnosis and Treatment of Delirium in the Terminally Ill