Drugs in Palliative Care

"While palliative care has adopted a holistic approach to treatment, medication driven symptom management ostensibly forms the critical aspect of care. Pharmacological therapy can be extremely complex because these patients often have co-existing medical conditions in addition to symptoms caused by their terminal disease. The resulting polypharmacy can be daunting for professionals and can negatively impact on effectiveness of care.The practitioner requires a simple, easy to navigate reference source that provides succinct and pertinent drug information. This detailed yet concise handbook will appeal to a variety of healthcare professionals involved in the provision of palliative care and medicines information. It begins with an overview of pharmacology and prescribing advice then contains over 100 entries of palliative care drugs, in an easy to use A-Z format"--Provided by publisher.

Andrew Dickman is a Consultant Pharmacist at the Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Marie Curie Hospice in Liverpool. He is also a project lead at the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute, University of Liverpool. Andrew is the co-author several books, including the Syringe Driver, the Palliative Care Formulary (PCF2) and Chronic Pain, part of the Oxford Pain Management Library. He has also contributed chapters to several books, including the Care of the Dying, Wall and Melzack's Textbook of Pain and Palliative Medicine. His job involves clinical work, research and education and he is currently undertaking a Doctorate in Pharmacy Practice.