To relieve suffering, provide emotional support, and improve patients’ quality of life, palliative care is generally interpreted as a kind and empowering approach to symptom management in serious illness, usually near the end of life. However, whatever the good may be, palliative care has risks. While much good can come to many individuals from it, there are some negative undercurrents that may remain undiscovered in its practice. This article looks into those negative effects and dangers of palliative care and discusses the reasons it might result in pain and poor outcomes for some patients.
What exactly means Palliation?
Palliative care is part of medical care in which pains are alleviated rather than treated by the illness itself. It concerns itself with the overall quality of life improvement for patients facing terminal diseases, including but not limited to cancers, those suffering from heart failure, or any other incomprehensible neurological disorders. The care is usually from a multi-team of doctors, nurses, and other professionals concerned with giving the care of the patient in full regard to his or her physical, emotional, social, and spiritual needs.
Palliating care is different from hospice care, which is favored by patients as they could survive for a month or two at best according to medical opinion. It is also possible that palliative care can be put through while the patient is within his terminal illness treatment phase.
The snippets about full palliative care
In recent decades, the provision of palliative care looks like an increasing option within several healthcare organizations. The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) states that more than seventy percent of hospitals in the United States reduced their provision of palliative care, and the number of people getting palliative services has been increasing continuously. The increase in these age groups is due to population growth as people get older and chronic diseases become commonplace, namely, the future prospects of palliative care demand. One reason for the popularity over time has to do with the myth that it is primarily relieving suffering and providing comfort in the dying process.
Like every other treatment, not all patients benefit from it equally, while in some cases, it can prove to be more damaging than beneficial. Most doctors or caregivers advocate for its efficacy, but quite a number of risks involved are not popular.
The Risks of Palliative Care
1.Possibility of Overdose
In fact, the most considerable risk within palliative care would be a dependency or misuse of medication, especially opioids. The other analgesics along with strong opioids such as morphine are prescribed in palliative care for their pain and symptom-relieving action. These medications cause significant relief from pain and discomfort but serious risks such as addiction, respiratory depression, and overdose have been documented.
2.Loss of Autonomy
There are scenarios where autonomy is lost. Even if it is meant to be helpful, palliative care in hospitals or nursing homes is often more supervision than care. And while it is intended to be giving care, many will find that it can lead to diminished individuation where patients feel that decisions are made for them or that they are dealt with more as a case than as an individual entitled to preferences and desires.
In some cases, it is replaced with the comfort and symptom management focus instead. For many people, loss of autonomy is permissive to the emotional distress that illness has brought forth. It leads to feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and depression, and, hence, reduces the quality of life which is meant to be improved through palliative treatment.
3.Consequences of Emotion and Mind
Palliative care is intended for relieving suffering and symptoms of illness. It is mostly for the physical symptoms of an illness. However, the psychological and emotional ones have been neglected and the terminal patients and their families have to cope with themselves in this light. Acceptance of the palliative care service often indicates to the patients that their disease is no longer going to be cured and, therefore, evokes feelings of hopelessness or even despair and grief.
4.Potential for Premature End-of-Life Decisions
Thus, there could be an inclination toward making premature decisions on dying, especially since palliative care is considered end-of-life care. The palliative care specialist may offer advice about options such as euthanasia, assisted suicide, or withholding life-sustaining treatments from the patients, thus generating ethical dilemmas and moral distress for patients and their families.
The life-threatening insinuation on the lives of these patients makes them ready, eventually, to take a decision on the argument of rationality by prematurely deciding on issues about living or dying. It results in the premature, though not necessary, death, along with regrets on both sides-the patient and the relatives.
5.Approaches that may be Ineffective for Certain Conditions
On the whole, palliation singularly does not prove to be the remedy for everything. While one can say that this form of treatment can help many patients, it cannot necessarily be of much use to each and everyone. Chronic conditions may be brought to palliative care without further alleviation to some such chronic infections. An example will probably be found in patients suffering from chronic pain, severe depression, and advanced dementia, where palliative treatment alone may not fulfill all requirements.
In fact, many patients in such cases feel neglected or ignored in their sufferings, causing a rather frustrating and hopeless state to them. Besides, when non-effective treatment options lead to ensuing events, possibly slow deterioration in health, the patient feels that instead of an active involvement in his care, he is only waiting for his death.
Palliative Care Alternatives: Natural Treatments and Approaches
There are natural treatments and approaches for those wanting a palliative care alternative; however, in this approach to wellness treatment, the plan is based on the quality of life improvements with little risk for most persons observed in conventional medical care. Here are some of the more natural forms of treatment:
1.Pain Relief from Natural Herbs
Using herbs as herbal remedies attested to their reliability thousands of years ago. Some of these herbs are anti-inflammatory; one among them is turmeric, ginger, and willow bark. All these herbs give relief from the pain and increase the movement in little time. In addition, visitors frequently tend to the CBD oil. The CBD oil now claims a place and popularity among natural pain relief remedies for which many customers, about their experience, have been inclined to the effects of chronic pain, without addiction or overdose effects similar to those from harmful opiate types.
2.Mindfulness and Meditation
Mindfulness and meditation find use in techniques that relieve stress from the mind and also from the emotions created by serious illnesses. Encourages relaxation, reduces anxiety, and brings in clear thought allowing the patient to shift his focus on the “now” instead of worrying about the outcome of being in such a condition. The actual practice will eventually bring about numbness of the injury and general wellness.
3.Acupuncture and Acupressure
Two ancient traditional Chinese medicines are acupuncture and acupressure. The ancient therapies involve applying various stimuli to a few points in the human body extensively for pain relief and relaxation, healing, and restoration of bodily functions or health. Hundreds of thousands of patients have received services from these therapies, reporting reduced pain and allowing them to enjoy a better quality of life without medication.
4.Nutritional Support and Dietary Modification
A balanced diet may seriously alter the symptoms of critical illness. Nutritional therapies like juicing, detox diets, and nutritional supplements may support immunity, increase energy levels, and influence inflammation. While undergoing palliative care, working with a nutritionist or holistic health professional could offer recommendations for personalizing strategies to optimize patient diets and overall health.
5. Physiotherapy and Exercise
These patients come across physical therapy and very light exercises that can enable them to maintain mobility and strength as far as serious illness threatens. Gentle activities, such as yoga, tai chi, and walking, enhance flexibility, lessen pain, and improve mood. In a sense, it empowers and makes the individual well by engaging the body in a particular activity.
6.Aromatherapy and Essential Oils
Attempt another natural remedy to relieve stress or pain or discomfort. Like many others, pure essential oils-lavender, peppermint, and chamomile-were diffused or used as topical applications for relaxing and soothing purposes, such as physical discomfort. Patients can expect relaxation with these oils and an all-soothing ambience.
7.Nursing Supportive Psychotherapy
Emotional and psychological aid is very important for patients in other terminal states. Supportive therapy can be regarded differently and could include talk therapy or grief counseling, whereby the patient and family could have assistance in venturing into all the challenges that usually accompany terminal illness and its treatment. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is another form of therapeutic approach that aids patients in giving a new interpretation to their thoughts and also learns ways to deal with the stress and anxiety related to terminal illness.
Conclusion
Palliative care has its risks, disadvantages, and dangers, even if it provides great benefits to many people facing terminal illness. Examples of potential disadvantages include medication overuse, loss of autonomy, emotional suffering, and premature decisions about end-of-life events; palliative care may not provide solutions for all patients and may, in fact, prolong their suffering.
When does palliative care initiate?
It starts precisely from the time of diagnosis or at a later stage in illness without being competitive with other disease-directed therapies. It includes – without being limited to- advance care planning, end-of-life care, hospice care, and bereavement support.
What is the risk in palliative care?
The most critical risk that comes with palliative care is ethical treatment and communicating between caregivers who are the ones who affect and carry out the clinical care processes at a time when health deteriorates.
Most depleted stage of palliative care?
Patients should be made as comfortable as possible; the environment should have sufficient lighting and be peaceful. Patients may be unresponsive, lucid and clear headed, confused, or hallucinating at different times.
The last part of the process of dying is the end of life. This sub-historical stage of time can be very hard. Patients should be kept in the most comfortable position, and the environment must have sufficient light with peace. The individual will be both unresponsive and lucid and clear headed; sometimes confused, in the last moments of science here and also sometimes under the influence of hallucinations.
Most depleted stage of palliative care? Patients should be as comfortable as possible; the environment needs to have sufficient lighting and peacefulness. Patients may alternate between being unresponsive, lucid and clear headed to confused or hallucinating much of the time.