Symptoms of palliative patients and their providers: depression, pain, nausea, and declines in quality of life

The July 2016 issue of Annals of Palliative Medicine (APM) features an original article by Olagunju and colleagues examining if the symptom burden of a child with cancer correlates with depressive symptoms among caregivers (1). In this study, children were most commonly inpatients (83%) treated with chemotherapy alone or in combination with surgery or radiation therapy (81%). Based on questionnaires and assessment scales, children were found to most commonly suffer from lack of energy, pain, nausea, and worry, and they reported their most burdensome symptoms to be pain, lack of appetite, and feeling sad. In total, 38% of the parents of childhood cancer suffers screened positive for significant depressive symptoms. Both the global symptom burden and individual symptoms in their children were correlated with depressive symptoms in caregivers. This study underscores the importance of additional investigation into supportive care for patients with pediatric cancers and early integration of palliative care for children with cancer, akin to the importance of early palliative care in adult oncology patients, as has recently been reported in APM (2,3)