This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Spanish PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Patient-Physician Relationship/ Care  • End-of-life Care/ Palliative Medicine  • JAMA Patient Page  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Some serious chronic medical illnesses, such as certain cancers or AIDS, cause significant suffering and impair quality of life. Palliative care is therapy that focuses on decreasing pain and suffering by providing treatments for relief of symptoms along with comfort and support for patients of all ages. Palliative care uses a team approach that involves the treating doctor, the family, and other health care professionals and social services. Hospice care, which involves helping ill individuals and their families during the last period of life, is often an important part of palliative care.

The March 16, 2005, issue of JAMA contains an article about how doctors, patients, and families can work together to provide optimal palliative care. This Patient Page is adapted from one previously published in the February 20, 2002, issue of JAMA.

PALLIATIVE CARE PATIENT SUPPORT SERVICES

• Pain management is vital for comfort and to reduce patients' distress. Health care professionals and . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Patterns of Care for Adults With Malignant Glioma--Reply
Chang et al.
JAMA 2005;293:2470-2470.
FULL TEXT