When doctors and their gravely ill patients have realistic conversations about the chances of recovery, it can help improve the patients' final days -- and help their loved ones, too.
That's what researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and their colleagues found and described in a study published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The study shows that end-of-life conversations did not increase patients' emotional distress, contrary to longstanding thinking in the medical community. In fact, these patients were more likely to receive comfort care over aggressive, life-extending therapies and, as a result, have better quality of life at the end -- as described by their loved ones.
The study was based on interviews with 332 dying patients and their informal caregivers, such as spouses or adult children. It found that realistic discussions between doctors and patients also led to less emotional distress for the surviving caregivers.
It seems safe to assume that goodbye conversations are more likely to happen in this scenario.
Alexi Wright, MD, is first author on the paper and a fellow at Dana-Farber. She told me recently that in the unfortunate situation when patients recognize that their cancer is no longer responding to treatment, they often shift their priorities from fighting the disease to pondering how they want to live their final months, weeks, and days.
"They often realize, 'I want to spend this precious time with my family and the things that really matter to me,'" she says. "They have a chance to reflect on their lives and how they want to be remembered."
To read more about this study, click here. Or check out this story in HealthDay.
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