title: A way to screen for suffering in palliative care.
abstract: We report a new tool for screening the suffering of terminally ill patients in a palliative care service. We systematically asked 371 terminal oncological and AIDS patients on 665 different occasions, "How long did yesterday seem to you?"; we then asked them to assess their current condition. The simple answer about subjective length of time correlated well with subjective suffering in approximately half the patients. Thus it may be a good starting point for future assessment and more extensive explorations.
authors.affiliation: Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bayés
authors.forename: J T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Limonero
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Barreto
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Comas
mesh_terms: D000163:Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology; D010166:Palliative Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D013030:Spain; D013727:Terminal Care; D013998:Time Perception