Psycho-Oncology

The Oncological Patient in the Palliative Situation

Psycho-Oncology

Recent results in cancer research Fortschritte der Krebsforschung Progrès dans les recherches sur le cancer, January 2018

28924680

978-3-31-964309-0, 978-3-31-964310-6

Steffen Eychmueller, Diana Zwahlen, Monica Fliedner

Palliative care approaches patients and their suffering with a bio-psycho-social-spiritual model. Thus, it is the strength of palliative care to complement the diagnosis driven approach of medical cancer care by a problem and resources-based assessment, participatory care plan and person-directed interventions. Interventions need to reflect timely prognosis, target population (the patient, the family carer, the professional) and level of trust and remaining energy. In palliative care the relevance of psycho-oncological aspects in the care of the terminally ill is considerable in the understanding of the overall suffering of patients approaching death and their loved ones and in their care and support. There is little evidence to date in terms of clinical benefit of specific psycho-oncological interventions in the last months or weeks of life, but there is evidence on effects of stress reduction and reduced anxiety if locus of control can stay within the patient as long as possible. One major challenge in psychosocial and palliative care research, however, is defining patient relevant outcomes.