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. 1994 May 21;308(6940):1359–1362. doi: 10.1136/bmj.308.6940.1359

Palliative care.

C L Davis 1, J R Hardy 1
PMCID: PMC2540250  PMID: 7517247

Abstract

Though many of the treatment strategies used in palliative care have never been subjected to clinical trial, it has been argued that advances in palliative care have outstripped those in many other specialties. This article is not a comprehensive review of therapeutic options, nor even of recent advances in this topic, but concentrates on the latest developments and controversies in the pharmacological treatment of four frequent and important symptoms: neuropathic pain, anorexia and cachexia, intestinal obstruction, and breathlessness. It is difficult to perform blinded, randomised trials in patients with advanced disease and poor performance status, yet it is these patients who may gain most from the adoption of new well evaluated treatment strategies.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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