Higginson, I. J.

Despite evidence of negative psychological sequelae and unmet needs, there are few evaluated interventions for informal caregivers in cancer and palliative care. The aim of this article is to debate the strengths and limitations of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other designs that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. Psycho-educational interventions are used as example for this debate article, as a number of studies of various designs evaluating this type of intervention have been published.

Background: Hospital is the most common place of cancer death but concerns regarding the quality of end-of-life care remain.

Aim: Preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of the Liverpool Care Pathway on the quality of end-of-life care provided to adult cancer patients during their last week of life in hospital.

Design: Uncontrolled before–after intervention cluster trial.

Informal carers in cancer and palliative care are known to have high needs and psychological morbidity, yet a literature review identified few targeted interventions. This systematic review of interventions for carers of patients using home cancer and palliative care services searched Medline, CancerLit, PsycInfo and Cinahl databases. The terms used were carer(s), caregiver(s), palliative and cancer. Papers that reported interventions for adults actively providing informal care for noninstitutionalized cancer and palliative care patients were reviewed.

Background No previous research exists specifically exploring the needs of those people severely affected by multiple sclerosis (MS).

Methods Semi-structured interviews were conducted with people identified by the referring health or social care professional as being severely affected by their MS and informal carers, in order to explore their perceptions of their illness and care. The data were analysed for themes using the constant comparative approach.