Spiritual Healing in a Hospice Veteran Led to a Successful Opioid Taper: A Case Report

Abstract

Addressing “total pain” is a concept commonly practiced in palliative care. Spiritual healing in a Navy Veteran led to a significant improvement in pain allowing a voluntary taper of opioid medication. The Veteran was able to reconcile his faith in God and participated in several spiritual practices daily. The palliative care pharmacist assisted the team in developing an opioid taper process per Veteran’s request as he had a strong conviction that he was spiritually healed. A reduction in opioid morphine equivalent daily doses (MEDD) were 87.5% without any symptoms from the clinical opioid withdrawal scale (COWS). The Veteran died peacefully during an opioid taper in hospice care.

Keywords:

• Veterans
• spiritual therapies
• analgesics
• opioid
• pain
• hospice care
• palliative care

Disclosure statement

The views expressed in this abstract reflect those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or of the United States. This case report was presented in poster format at the AAHPM Annual Assembly in Boston, MA in March 2018. Written informed consent for publication of the patient details was obtained from the next of kin.

Funding

The authors received no financial support, nor did they receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.