Current practices in managing end-of-life existential suffering.
Current opinion in supportive and palliative care June 1, 2023 Michelle Di Risio, Alison Thompson 5 citations
Existential suffering (ES) in palliative care can arise independently or alongside physical, psychological, and spiritual pain. With patients increasingly citing ES as a reason for requesting hastened death, a review of recent interventions is timely. Promising new modalities include brain stimulation and psychedelics, while palliative sedation and lethal injections for ES remain ethically controversial and lack a clear clinical definition. Optimal management of ES must also account for institutional and cultural factors that shape care at the end of life.