Things to Consider When Completing an Advance Directive

Abstract

Questions from patients about pain conditions and analgesic pharmacotherapy and responses from authors are presented to help educate patients and make them more effective self-advocates. In response to a question about advance directives for a patient experiencing chronic pain, the authors discuss the importance of having legal documents in place.

Keywords:

• Advance directive
• chronic pain
• family members
• health care professional
• health care proxy
• medical decisions
• surrogate decision maker

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.