Prescribed medications for alleviating suffering symptoms in patients receiving palliative care at a tertiary care hospital.

Background: Recognizing and appropriately treating symptoms of suffering in patients receiving palliative care is a means to enhance the quality of life for both the patient and their family. The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of pharmacological treatments for symptoms of suffering and prescribing patterns in hospitalized patients receiving palliative care at a tertiary care government general hospital.

Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the Prachuapkhirikhan Hospital, Thailand. All patients over 18 years old who were admitted to the hospital and received palliative care were included. Data were collected from medical charts and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Results: During the 3-year period of study, 296 admissions were included. Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and infectious disease were the top three primary diseases for which patients received palliative care. Dyspnea was the most reported symptom of suffering (81.08%), followed by fatigue, constipation, and pain (41.89%, 35.14%, and 25.34%, respectively). All cases experienced fatigue, depression, insomnia, and anxiety received pharmacological treatment. Dyspnea, pain, nausea/vomiting, delirium, and malignant bowel obstruction were treated in at least 80% of the cases experiencing suffering. Constipation, diarrhea, and anorexia/ cachexia were treated in approximately 66.35%, 78.57%, and 67.86% of the cases, respectively. Strong opioids were the most commonly used medication for the treatment of dyspnea or pain.

Conclusions: Our study revealed that suffering symptoms were routinely identified in hospitalized palliative care patients. Pharmacological treatments were prescribed to manage most of these symptoms. However, there is a need to improve the quality of assessing suffering symptoms severity to enhance their effectiveness.