Palliative care focuses on the management of disease symptoms that produce discomfort and pain, compromise function, or otherwise undermine the quality of life of patients with progressive medical disorders. It is a fundamental part of clinical practice, the necessary companion to therapies directed at the prolongation of life and the cure of disease. As a clinical specialty, palliative care is just beginning to define itself in the United States. The appearance of Topics in Palliative Care meets the growing need for information in this rapidly evolving field.
This first volume in...

Palliative care is a rapidly evolving field focused on the management of problems that undermine the quality of life of patients with progressive incurable medical disorders. It is fundamentally concerned with all factors- physical, psychological, social, and spiritual- that contribute to suffering, and prevent a death with comfort and dignity. Palliative care is a fundamental aspect to good clinical practice, the "parallel universe" to therapies directed at cure or prolongation of life. All clinicians who treat patients with chronic life-threatening diseases are engaged in providing...