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Palliative Care

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

  • 20 Accesses

Synonyms

Hospices; Palliative medicine; Supportive care; Terminal care

Definition

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines palliative care as “an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychological and spiritual” (World Health Organization 2002).

Description

The goal of palliative care is to achieve the best possible quality of life for both the patients and their families.

Palliative care:

  • Is a multidisciplinary task and uses a team approach by physicians, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and other health professionals to address the needs of patients and their families

  • Offers a support system to help patients and their families in the community

  • Is applicable at any age and at any stage in the course of illness, in...

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References and Readings

  • Temel, J. S., Greer, J. A., Muzikansky, A., Gallagher, E. R., Admane, S., Jackson, V. A., et al. (2010). Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. New England Journal of Medicine, 363(8), 733–742. Retrieved August 19, 2010, from https://www.nejm.org.

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  • World Health Organization. (2002). WHO definition of palliative care. Retrieved September 28, 2009, from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/

  • Yamamoto, T. (2005). Hagakure: The book of the samurai (W. S. Wilson, Trans.). Tokyo: Kodansha International.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department Of Palliative Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

    Satoru Iwase & Chica Mori

Authors
  1. Satoru Iwase
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  2. Chica Mori
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Satoru Iwase .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioral Medicine Research Center, Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc D. Gellman

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Iwase, S., Mori, C. (2020). Palliative Care. In: Gellman, M.D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_419

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39903-0_419

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-39901-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-39903-0

  • eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine

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