Palliative Pharmacy Care

Palliative care is primarily directed at providing relief to a terminally-ill person through symptom and pain management. The goal is not to cure, but to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life for as long as life remains. The focus is not on death, but on compassionate specialized care for the living. Palliative care functions best within an interdisciplinary team model that includes pharmacists playing a vital role in improving therapy compliance and outcomes. Pharmacists are practicing palliative care in a number of settings that include hospice, home care, out-patient treatment centers and hospitals. Palliative care often follows as a parallel track to the therapy for the disease. Palliative Pharmacy Care serves both as an aid to practitioners and a teaching text. Each chapter contains at least one case study with questions, key points, and clinical pearls. Inside you'll find: A solid foundation for the history and principles of the area of practice as well as more advanced sections on specific treatment issues such as cancer and pediatrics. Symptom-management overviews for specific diseases and general health problems related to terminal illness such as anxiety, fatigue, and constipation. Pain management guidelines on topics such pathophysiology and pharmacology, nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain, equianalgesic dosing/opioid rotation, secretion management, and "death rattle." A discussion on the future of pharmacists in palliative care, setting up palliative care services and other general issues and concerns for pharmacists providing this service. And much more.