Palliative care

Palliative care is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of the symptoms of a disease or slows its progress rather than providing a cure. It aims at improving quality of life, by reducing or eliminating pain and other physical symptoms, enabling the patient to ease or resolve psychological and spiritual problems, and supporting the partner and family.

Related Topics:
Symptom - Disease - Cure - Pain

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a 1990 report on the topic, defined palliative care as "the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment". This definition stresses the terminal nature of the disease. However, the term can also be used more generally to refer to anything that alleviates symptoms, even if there is also hope of a cure by other means; thus, a more recent WHO statement http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/ calls palliative care "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness". In some cases, palliative treatments may be used to alleviate the side effects of curative treatments, such as relieving the nausea associated with chemotherapy.

Related Topics:
World Health Organisation - Terminal - Side effect - Nausea - Chemotherapy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The term is not generally used with regard to a chronic disease such as diabetes which, although currently incurable, has treatments that are (ideally) effective enough that it is not considered a progressive or life-threatening disease in the same sense as cancer or progressive neurological conditions. It is, however, occasionally used with regard to some diseases, such as chronic, progressive pulmonary disorders and end stage renal disease or chronic heart failure.

Related Topics:
Chronic - Disease - Diabetes

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Though the concept of palliative care is not new, in the past most doctors have concentrated on aggressively trying to cure patients, so that concentrating on making a patient comfortable was seen as "giving up" on them. In recent times the concept of having a good quality of life has gained ground, although many would argue that there is a long way to go yet. A relatively recent development is the concept of a health care team that is entirely geared toward palliation; this is often called hospice or palliative care.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~