Chronic palliative care: specific practices for Alzheimer's disease sufferers.
BACKGROUND
In France, the government's plan to combat Alzheimer's disease takes into consideration mostly the beginnings of the disease; it does not deal with the sufferers' end of life. For this pathology, the very idea of a palliative care phase and its definition are not straightforward.


METHODS
The object of this qualitative study was to clarify this idea through a series of interviews with 44 professionals.


RESULTS
The study describes three successive phases in the disease trajectory, revealed by changes in the logic of care: the stimulation phase, the chronic palliative care phase, and the terminal palliative phase.


CONCLUSIONS
Alzheimer's disease has a specific phase of chronic palliative care. It presents, for professionals, several types of problems related to communication, pain, and feeding.
Mino
Jean-Christophe
JC
Palliative Care Unit, Pitié Salpêtrière Medical School Hospital, and National Center of Resources for Palliative Care FX Bagnoud, 6 avenue Lemierre, 75980 Paris Cedex 20, France.
Frattini
Marie-Odile
MO
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003147:Communication Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D018450:Disease Progression; D004645:Empathy; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D005602:France / Q000453:epidemiology; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand; D006801:Humans; D010146:Pain / Q000209:etiology; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018579:Patient Selection; D024382:Professional Role / Q000523:psychology; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload