Friday, May 5, 2006
Galactorrhea and snoring strips and other quasi-palliative-care-related topics
A few things in brief for the weekend:
1)
A recent New England Journal of Medicine had a "Medical Progress" series article on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. From time to time at Pallimed we take note of cancer reviews in non-palliative journals and if there is a nod given in them towards supportive or even palliative care. This one had zip.
2)
BMJ has a brief letter reminding us that hyperprolactimemia and galactorrhea can be complciations of long-term methadone use.
The same issue continues BMJ's very basic and thus aptly named "ABC of Palliative Care" series with an article about "difficult pain." The whole series seems to be geared towards people** who know nothing about pain control and has a "hey, there are some treatments out there you know" tone to it. **One must unfortunately assume that these people are practicing physicians.
3)
April's PC-FACS are out--excellent as usual--but it seems they aren't yet posted on the AAHPM web-site...?
There's also a list of palliative care related PDA resources on the AAHPM site now. This may be old, but I've just noticed it, and it's being promoted in the AAHPM's current news e-letter.
4)
April's Supportive Care in Cancer has an article about an interesting, but completely non-controlled and probably bogus trial of external nasal dilator strips to relieve dyspnea in cancer patients. Yes, these are the strips people use for snoring. I'm not sure how you'd actually do even a single-blinded study with these....