TY  - JOUR
T1  - Palliative sedation: Need for consensus guidelines and standards: comment on “continuous deep sedation until death in belgium: a nationwide survey”
AU  - Vissers KP, Hasselaar JJ
Y1  - 2010/03/08
N1  - 10.1001/archinternmed.2010.12
JO  - Archives of Internal Medicine
SP  - 494
EP  - 495
VL  - 170
IS  - 5
N2  - 
The first publications on the intentional lowering of consciousness in patients with distressing and refractory symptoms at the end of life appeared in the 1990s. In 2001, Morita et al1 proposed to define palliative sedation as the use of sedative medications (not narcotics) specifically to relieve intolerable and refractory distress by a reduction of patient consciousness. This document highlights 2 important principles: (1) the intentional lowering of consciousness by the use of sedatives, and (2) the distinction between light/deep and intermittent/continuous sedation. However, there has been very little study of palliative sedation, and there are no well-accepted guidelines that rigorously outline the best methods and standards of effective palliative sedation.2

SN  - 0003-9926
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2010.12
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinternmed.2010.12
ER  -