Thomas Thaniyath
University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia
Title: Effective analgesia for good quality of death- A non- Pharmacological approach
Biography
Biography: Thomas Thaniyath
Abstract
Death is a truth and reality. However, “…….our ultimate goal, after all, is not a good death, but a good life to the very end ”- Atul Gawande, Being Mortal: Medicine and What matters in the End. Most people would prefer to die at home and statistics shows an increasing trend towards. In 1980, 70% US cancer patients died in the hospitals and the number had dropped to 37% in 1998 and further to 22%. Pain is a frequent symptom in patients under palliative care and highly prevalent in the four months prior to death due to nociceptive or neuropathic mechanism or both types. Effective management of pain in elderly patients will reduce the disability and improves the quality of life to the very end. Unfortunately, many barriers huddles with effective management of pain symptom include patient factors such as misconceptions about pain and its treatment, fears and concerns about pain and its medications and barriers related to providers such as lack of knowledge , skills and time for adequate assessment of pain and other symptoms. In addition, elderly has highest prevalence of comorbidity and age-related alteration in the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, which makes the pain treatment more complex. Chronic pain encompasses a complex array of sensory-discriminatory, motivational-effective and cognitive –evaluative factors. Because of these factors, the control of pain symptom should be approached in multidisciplinary way consist of pharmacological and with more emphasis on non-pharmacological modalities