title: Managing breathlessness: a palliative care approach.
abstract: Breathlessness is an important and common symptom globally, affecting patients with a variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. It causes considerable suffering to patients and also their families, and is a significant cost to healthcare systems. Optimal management of the symptom should therefore be of interest and importance to a wide range of clinicians. Best practice in the management of breathlessness consists of both non-pharmacological and pharmacological interventions as evidenced by recent randomised controlled trials of multidisciplinary breathlessness support services. As well as providing evidence for integration of early palliative care into respiratory services, these revealed that patient distress due to breathlessness can be significantly reduced and better outcomes can be achieved at lower cost than standard care.
authors.affiliation: Department of Palliative Medicine, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Chloe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.affiliation: Department of Palliative Medicine, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Booth
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004417:Dyspnea / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D010346:Patient Care Management / Q000379:methods / Q000458:organization & administration; D000070659:Patient Comfort / Q000379:methods*; D012138:Respiratory Therapy / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Breathlessness; Complex intervention; Dyspnoea; Non-pharmacological; Pharmacological