The most common form of treating pain in palliative care includes drugs that ease suffering, but alternative therapies might help the patient relax and feel better. The World Health Organization suggests procedures to ease pain in palliative care that start with over-the-counter medication for mild pain. As the pain increases, codeine can be administered, followed by morphine or other narcotics for severe pain.
Pain experts say stress and anxiety increase pain levels. Patients often receive medication that reduces stress and promotes relaxation to help ease pain in palliative care. Hospice workers might create a calm and soothing environment to help the patient relax.
Massage therapy works as an effective treatment to ease pain in palliative care for some patients. Other forms of touching, including being held, might also bring relief. Another alternative therapy involves music that may comfort the patient as he or she nears the end of life. Other patients may respond to biofeedback techniques and acupuncture.
Palliative care helps patients live as normally as possible after diagnosis with a life-threatening illness where the prognosis for recovery appears dim. It offers pain relief, but neither hastens nor postpones death. Hospice care recognizes death as a normal process and aims to address the physical, spiritual, and psychological needs of the patient.
These programs typically offer support to families of terminal patients. The family usually becomes part of the team, caring for their loved one while receiving education about dying and the grieving process. Grief counselors commonly help the family from the time of diagnosis until their loved one dies.
St. Christopher’s Hospice in England introduced the concept of palliative care in 1967 to address the special needs of people who suffered from terminal disease. This was the first time morphine was used to alleviate pain in cancer patients. Modern hospice programs expanded the use of various narcotics to help ease suffering for patients with autoimmune diseases and multiple sclerosis.
When treating pain in children or adults who cannot speak, caregivers watch for signs that the patient is suffering. If blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rates increase, it might signify the patient is in pain. Other signs of pain include a tensed body, moaning, and grimacing.
Doctors typically address fear of addiction when narcotic drugs are given to hospice patients to reduce pain. They might explain that pain relief represents a humane way to keep a person comfortable in his or her final days. Physicians commonly recommend narcotics be given at regular intervals so constant pain relief is possible. In cases where drugs fail to block the patient’s pain, surgery might be performed on nerves that send pain signals to the brain.
