scholarly journals Psychiatric involvement in an Edinburgh hospice

1998 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Mitchell

Palliative care is a growing speciality. The terminally ill suffer high levels of psychiatric morbidity. The involvement of one senior registrar in setting up a liaison psychiatry service to a Marie Curie Hospice in special interest sessions is described. A liaison-consultation model developed and 29 referrals are described over six months.

1999 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sue Smith

Aims and methodTo set up a liaison psychiatry service for an obstetric department and review how much of the work involved in such a service can be undertaken by a senior registrar in two special interest sessions.ResultsIt was clear there was a demand for a service for women with psychiatric problems associated with childbirth. Referrals from colleagues in general psychiatry meant that the available time was soon used up. This did therefore not allow time to develop efficient systems for referral and management or to then see the extra referrals this would have produced. The limited and temporary service was well received by other professionals and by patients. The number of referrals received fell far short of the expected morbidity.Clinical implicationsIn an area with this number of births and its consequent level of psychiatric morbidity, it would not seem possible, within two special interest sessions, to develop a more formalised or comprehensive system.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Tan Seng Beng ◽  
Wong Ka Ghee ◽  
Ng Yun Hui ◽  
Ooi Chieh Yin ◽  
Khoo Wei Shen Kelvin ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective Dying is mostly seen as a dreadful event, never a happy experience. Yet, as palliative care physicians, we have seen so many patients who remained happy despite facing death. Hence, we conducted this qualitative study to explore happiness in palliative care patients at the University of Malaya Medical Centre. Method Twenty terminally ill patients were interviewed with semi-structured questions. The results were thematically analyzed. Results Eight themes were generated: the meaning of happiness, connections, mindset, pleasure, health, faith, wealth, and work. Our results showed that happiness is possible at the end of life. Happiness can coexist with pain and suffering. Social connections were the most important element of happiness at the end of life. Wealth and work were given the least emphasis. From the descriptions of our patients, we recognized a tendency for the degree of importance to shift from the hedonic happiness to eudaimonic happiness as patients experienced a terminal illness. Significance of results To increase the happiness of palliative care patients, it is crucial to assess the meaning of happiness for each patient and the degree of importance for each happiness domain to allow targeted interventions.


Author(s):  
Mattia Marchi ◽  
Federica Maria Magarini ◽  
Giorgio Mattei ◽  
Luca Pingani ◽  
Maria Moscara ◽  
...  

Consultation–liaison psychiatry (CLP) manages psychiatric care for patients admitted to a general hospital (GH) for somatic reasons. We evaluated patterns in psychiatric morbidity, reasons for referral and diagnostic concordance between referring doctors and CL psychiatrists. Referrals over the course of 20 years (2000–2019) made by the CLP Service at Modena GH (Italy) were retrospectively analyzed. Cohen’s kappa statistics were used to estimate the agreement between the diagnoses made by CL psychiatrist and the diagnoses considered by the referring doctors. The analyses covered 18,888 referrals. The most common referral reason was suspicion of depression (n = 4937; 32.3%), followed by agitation (n = 1534; 10.0%). Psychiatric diagnoses were established for 13,883 (73.8%) referrals. Fair agreement was found for depressive disorders (kappa = 0.281) and for delirium (kappa = 0.342), which increased for anxiety comorbid depression (kappa = 0.305) and hyperkinetic delirium (kappa = 0.504). Moderate agreement was found for alcohol or substance abuse (kappa = 0.574). Referring doctors correctly recognized psychiatric conditions due to their exogenous etiology or clear clinical signs; in addition, the presence of positive symptoms (such as panic or agitation) increased diagnostic concordance. Close daily collaboration between CL psychiatrists and GH doctors lead to improvements in the ability to properly detect comorbid psychiatric conditions.


BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e041214
Author(s):  
Kevin Glynn ◽  
Frank McKenna ◽  
Kevin Lally ◽  
Muireann O’Donnell ◽  
Sandeep Grover ◽  
...  

ObjectivesTo investigate whether delirium motor subtypes differ in terms of phenomenology and contributory aetiology.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingInternational study incorporating data from Ireland and India across palliative care, old age liaison psychiatry and general adult liaison psychiatry settings.Participants1757 patients diagnosed with delirium using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth edition (DSM IV).Primary and secondary outcome measuresHyperactive, mixed and hypoactive delirium subtypes were identified using the abbreviated version of the Delirium Motor Subtype Scale. Phenomenology was assessed using the Delirium Rating Scale Revised. Contributory aetiologies were assessed using the Delirium Aetiology Checklist (DEC), with a score >2 indicating that the aetiology was likely or definitely contributory.ResultsHypoactive delirium was associated with dementia, cerebrovascular and systemic infection aetiologies (p<0.001) and had a lower overall burden of delirium symptoms than the other motor subtypes. Hyperactive delirium was associated with younger age, drug withdrawal and the DEC category other systemic aetiologies (p<0.001). Mixed delirium showed the greatest symptom burden and was more often associated with drug intoxication and metabolic disturbance (p<0.001). All three delirium motor subtypes had similar levels of impairment in attention and visuospatial functioning but differed significantly when compared with no subtype (p<0.001).ConclusionsThis study indicates a pattern of aetiology and symptomatology of delirium motor subtypes across a large international sample that had previously been lacking. It serves to improve our understanding of this complex condition and has implications in terms of early detection and management of delirium.


Author(s):  
Nanako Koyama ◽  
Chikako Matsumura ◽  
Yuuna Tahara ◽  
Morito Sako ◽  
Hideo Kurosawa ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose The aims of the present study were to investigate the symptom clusters in terminally ill patients with cancer using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 15 Palliative Care (EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL), and to examine whether these symptom clusters influenced prognosis. Methods We analyzed data from 130 cancer patients hospitalized in the palliative care unit from June 2018 to December 2019 in an observational study. Principal component analysis was used to detect symptom clusters using the scored date of 14 items in the QLQ-C15-PAL, except for overall QOL, at the time of hospitalization. The influence of the existence of these symptom clusters and Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) on survival was analyzed by Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, and survival curves were compared between the groups with or without existing corresponding symptom clusters using the log-rank test. Results The following symptom clusters were identified: cluster 1 (pain, insomnia, emotional functioning), cluster 2 (dyspnea, appetite loss, fatigue, and nausea), and cluster 3 (physical functioning). Cronbach’s alpha values for the symptom clusters ranged from 0.72 to 0.82. An increased risk of death was significantly associated with the existence of cluster 2 and poor PPS (log-rank test, p = 0.016 and p < 0.001, respectively). Conclusion In terminally ill patients with cancer, three symptom clusters were detected based on QLQ-C15-PAL scores. Poor PPS and the presence of symptom cluster that includes dyspnea, appetite loss, fatigue, and nausea indicated poor prognosis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 50 (spe) ◽  
pp. 47-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Maria Florêncio Dantas ◽  
Maria Cristina Lopes de Almeida Amazonas

This paper presents a reflection about being terminally ill and the various ways that the subject has at its disposal to deal with this event. The objective is to understand the experience of palliation for patients undergoing no therapeutic possibilities of cure. The methodology of this study has the instruments to semi-structured interview, the participant observation and the field diary, and the Descriptive Analysis of Foucault’s inspiration how the narratives of the subjects were perceived. The Results of paper there was the possibility of looking at the experience of illness through the eyes of a subject position assumed by the very sick. As conclusion we have than when choosing palliative care, the terminally ill opts for a way to feel more comfortable and resists the impositions of the medical model of prolonging life.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 6503-6503
Author(s):  
Carlisle E. W. Topping ◽  
Madeleine Elyze ◽  
Rachel Plotke ◽  
Lauren Heuer ◽  
Charu Vyas ◽  
...  

6503 Background: Many patients with advanced cancer maintain misperceptions of their prognosis and are thus unprepared to make difficult decisions regarding their end-of-life (EOL) care. However, studies examining the associations between patients’ perceptions of their prognosis and their EOL outcomes are limited. Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis using longitudinal data from a randomized controlled trial of a palliative care intervention for patients with newly diagnosed incurable lung and non-colorectal gastrointestinal cancer. We administered the Prognosis and Treatment Perceptions Questionnaire to assess patients’ perceptions of their prognosis at baseline, week-12, and week-24, using the final assessment closest to death. We used multivariate logistic and linear regression models, adjusting for age, gender, marital status, cancer type, and randomization to the palliative care intervention, to examine the associations among patients’ perceptions of their prognosis with the following EOL care outcomes abstracted from the electronic health record: 1) hospice utilization and length-of-stay (LOS); 2) hospitalizations in the last 30 days of life; 3) receipt of chemotherapy in the last 30 days of life; and 4) location of death. Results: We enrolled 350 patients in the parent trial, of which 80.5% (281/350) died during the study period and were included in this analysis. Overall, 59.4% (164/276) of patients reported that they were terminally ill, and 66.1% (154/233) reported that their cancer was likely curable at the assessment closest to death. In multivariate analyses, patients who reported that their cancer was likely curable were less likely to utilize hospice (OR = 0.25, 95%CI 0.10-0.61, P = 0.002) or die at home (OR = 0.56, 95%CI 0.32-0.98, P = 0.043), and more likely to be hospitalized in the last 30 days of life (OR = 2.28, 95%CI 1.20-4.32, P = 0.011). In contrast, patients’ report that they were terminally ill was only associated with lower likelihood of hospitalizations in the last 30 days of life (OR = 0.52, 95%CI 0.29-0.92, P = 0.025). Patients’ perceptions of their prognosis were not associated with hospice LOS or chemotherapy administration in the last 30 days of life. Conclusions: Patients’ perceptions of their prognosis are associated with important EOL outcomes including hospice utilization, hospitalizations at the EOL, and death at home. Interventions are needed to enhance patients’ perceptions of their prognosis in order to optimize their EOL care.


2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Shinjo ◽  
Tatsuya Morita ◽  
Daisuke Kiuchi ◽  
Masayuki Ikenaga ◽  
Hirofumi Abo ◽  
...  

ObjectivesVoluntarily stopping eating and drinking (VSED) could be regarded as a patients’ own non-treatment decision that hastens death, which involves patients voluntarily forgoing food and liquid until death. The aims of this study were to investigate the experience of home hospice physicians and palliative care specialists who care for patients during VSED in Japan, and their opinions on continuous deep sedation (CDS) as a means to relieve patient symptoms during VSED.Methods219 home hospice physicians and 695 palliative care specialists across Japan were surveyed by mail questionnaire in 2016.ResultsA total of 571 (62%) responses were analysed. A total of 185 (32%) had experience of patients who selected VSED. In response to questions about CDS to provide relief to patients during VSED, the number of physicians who replied that CDS was acceptable was 88 (15%).ConclusionsIn Japan, 32% of physicians surveyed replied that they had experience of caring for patients during VSED in a clinical setting and 15% considered CDS acceptable.


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