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Life
Special Issues
New Sight to Palliative Medicine: Updates and Future Directions
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New Sight to Palliative Medicine: Updates and Future Directions

A special issue of Life (ISSN 2075-1729). This special issue belongs to the section "Medical Research".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2022) | Viewed by 3867

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Linda Björkhem-Bergman

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Karolinska Institutet and Stockholms Sjukhem, Palliative Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: palliative care; cancer; vitamin D; fatigue; antibiotics; clinical pharmacology; sex and gender
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The aim of palliative care is to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life in patients who are facing problems associated with life-threatening illness, regardless of diagnosis. This includes the correct assessment and treatment of symptoms such as pain, fatigue, nausea, anxiety, and breathlessness, but also meeting the psychosocial and spiritual needs of patients and their families. Palliative care uses a team approach including several different professions to support the patient in living as actively as possible until their death. In the recently proposed revision of the definition of palliative care, the need for evidence-based practice is emphasized.

This Special Issue aims to include up-to-date reviews and original articles on new treatment strategies for pain and other symptoms in palliative care patients, when to terminate or adjust treatments, how to improve symptom assessment, prognostication, and the identification of palliative care needs. In addition, articles on educational and research aspects of palliative medicine and care are also suitable for this Issue.

Dr. Linda Björkhem-Bergman
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Palliative care 
  • end of life 
  • cancer
  • pain 
  • symptom management
  • clinical research

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

10 pages, 270 KiB  
Review
The Use of Low-Dose Methadone as Add-On to Ongoing Opioid Treatment in Palliative Cancer Care—An Underrated Treatment?
by Per Fürst
Life 2022, 12(5), 679; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12050679 - 3 May 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2969
Abstract
The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge of low-dose methadone treatment in palliative cancer care. In Sweden, methadone is quite common in specialized palliative care, where almost a tenth of patients are prescribed this drug. Negative attitudes towards methadone [...] Read more.
The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge of low-dose methadone treatment in palliative cancer care. In Sweden, methadone is quite common in specialized palliative care, where almost a tenth of patients are prescribed this drug. Negative attitudes towards methadone do not seem to prevent it from being used for pain management, and by starting with low doses and then increasing slowly and gradually, methadone can apparently be introduced safely. It is still uncertain whether methadone has a better analgesic effect than other opioids. However, for pain relief in cancer patients with severe and complex cancer-related pain, NMDA receptor inhibition with methadone may, in selected cases, be an attractive alternative, especially in the form of low-dose supplements to other ongoing opioids. Due to long half-life and complex metabolism, the use of methadone requires an experienced physician and solid follow-up. Continuous administration of opioids, including low-dose methadone, has been proven effective and safe in reducing pain in dying patients without increasing the risk of confusion, regardless of age. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue New Sight to Palliative Medicine: Updates and Future Directions)
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