Palliative Care in Respiratory Disease

Edited by Claudia Bausewein, David C. Currow and Miriam J. Johnson
Palliative care aims to optimise function and to enhance quality of life for patients with serious and life-limiting illnesses. It focuses on reducing the burden of symptoms, and supporting patients and caregivers. This Monograph provides a comprehensive overview of palliative care in respiratory disease, including coverage of policy variations around the world, epidemiology of advanced respiratory diseases, access to palliative care and the need for care in a range of chronic respiratory diseases from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis to lung cancer and cystic fibrosis. There are detailed sections on breathlessness, focusing on symptom definition, patient and caregiver experiences, physiological mechanisms, measurement and management; and on care for patients with advanced disease who are in the terminal phases of their illness.

Contents list

Palliative care and respiratory disease
1. Definitions and policy 
2. The need for palliative care 
3. Access to palliative care
4. Supporting informal carers

Symptoms
5. Symptom patterns in populations
6. The construct of breathlessness
7. Patient and carer experience of breathlessness
8. Mechanisms of breathlessness
9. Measurement of breathlessness
10. Management of chronic breathlessness
11. Service planning and delivery for chronic adult breathlessness
12. Palliative care in respiratory disease in low-resource settings

Care of the dying
13. Recognising advanced disease, advance care planning and recognition of dying for people with COPD
14. Symptom management at the end of life
15. End-stage respiratory diseases and respiratory support

ISBN: 978-1-84984-071-2