title: In their own words: Seven advanced cancer patients describe their experience with pain and the use of opioid drugs.
abstract: Seven individuals living with advanced cancer, who were followed by a pain and palliative care service at an urban cancer center and had at least once expressed a desire for hastened death, describe how both pain and the use of opioid drugs affected their quality of life. Their description is part of a broader phenomenological inquiry on the experience of living with advanced cancer and how that experience affected attitudes towards life and death. Serial, "in-depth semi-structured" interviews were conducted (mean=3 interviews/patient). Themes that emerged in relation to pain and opioid use reflect struggle--with self, with God, and with desire to live and/or readiness to die. Recognizing the appraisal process that patients undertake regarding the cost/benefit of reporting pain and accepting opioids, as well as the impact on severe pain on desire for death, from the patients' own word, gives a framework for the clinician to intervene.
authors.affiliation: Pain and Palliative Care Service, Department of Neurology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10021, USA.
authors.forename: Nessa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Coyle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009294:Narcotics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics