Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy Literature Summaries and Analyses

Abstract

Timely and important studies are reviewed and commentaries provided by leading palliative care clinicians. Symptoms, interventions, mechanisms of action, and treatment-related adverse events addressed in this issue are cannabinoids—role in chronic pain and summary of adverse effects; risk of gastrointestinal (GI) bleeding in the setting of antithrombotic drugs; mediators of cancer-associated cachexia; methylnaltrexone for opioid-induced constipation; and midodrine to prevent paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction.

KEYWORDS:

• ascites
• cachexia
• cannabinoids
• constipation
• gastrointestinal bleeding
• pain