Background Dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative life-limiting disease. The international literature indicates that patients with advanced dementia can benefit from palliative care (PC) provided ...

Background Improving palliative care (PC) is demanding due to the increase in people with PC needs over the next few years. An early identification of PC needs is fundamental in the care approach: it ...

Background Children with life-limiting conditions often have complex needs, making it challenging for services to provide satisfactory care. Few studies consider whether services actually meet ...

Dying patients can have distressing symptoms, and medications exist to control them. Dying needs to be actively managed—there is no such thing as ‘nothing more can be done’. Yet, recognising dying is ...

Background Pain is one of the most frequently encountered symptoms in palliative care patients, and poorly controlled pain is debilitating. Two-thirds of terminally ill cancer patients report moderate ...

Objectives To evaluate the presence of aberrant behaviour in a consecutive sample of patients with advanced cancer treated with opioids in a country like Italy, with its peculiar attitudes towards the ...

Chronic breathlessness is a disabling and distressing condition for which there is a growing evidence base for a range of interventions. Non-pharmacological interventions are the mainstay of ...

Objectives We aimed to explore the association between receiving an inpatient palliative care consultation and hospital outcomes, including in-hospital death, intensive care unit (ICU) use, discharge ...

Background The use of virtual reality (VR) is increasing in palliative care. However, despite increasing interest in VR, there is little evidence of how this technology can be implemented into ...

Objectives Dignity therapy (DT) is a brief, individualised psychotherapy that aims to alleviate psychosocial and spiritual distress in the final stages of life. It is unknown yet whether DT can ...

Background. To optimise quality of life for patients with life-threatening disease, palliative care should run in parallel with potentially curative or disease-modifying treatment.1–3 In studies of ...

Background Subcutaneous (SC) administration is the preferred parenteral opioid route in palliative care, while intravenous infusion may allow faster titration. Comparative evidence remains limited.