Treat suffering to provide comfort at end-of-life. Suffering that requires palliative care response can include physical, psychological, social, and spiritual suffering. Physical suffering is direct disease effects and side-effects of treatment. Psychological suffering includes acute and chronic effects of the illness, side-effects of treatment, grief, and survivor’s guilt. Social suffering consists of extreme poverty, social stigma, social isolation, and extreme vulnerability. Last, spiritual suffering includes loss of sense of meaning of life and loss of faith.
SNOMED_CT Problem=191415002 (PB0050); SNOMED_CT Cat-Tar=385736008 (CG0002, TG0068)
