ObjectiveIssues regarding clinician communication remain an important source of complaints within healthcare. This systematic review aims to determine cancer patients' and their family caregivers'... Show moreObjectiveIssues regarding clinician communication remain an important source of complaints within healthcare. This systematic review aims to determine cancer patients' and their family caregivers' views on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm (i.e. eliciting negative feelings/consequences for patients/family caregivers).MethodsWe searched for all types of peer-reviewed studies that determined adult (>= 18 years) cancer patients' and/or family caregivers' perspectives on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm in several databases (PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Emcare, PsycINFO and Academic Search Premier), supplemented by expert-consultation. Studies were screened using the Artificial intelligence screening tool of ASReview and data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis. To assess the quality of the studies the Qualsyst critical appraisal tool was used.ResultsA total of 47 studies were included. Four main themes of harmful communication behaviors were identified: (1) Lack of tailored information provision (e.g. giving too little or too much/specific information) (2) Lack of tailored decision making (ranging from; patient exclusion, to the patients' responsibility, and/or haste) (3) Lack of feeling seen and heard (seen as a disease, not as a human being; not listened to concerns and emotions) (4) Lack of feeling held and remembered (forgotten agreements; lack of care continuity).ConclusionsOur results reveal an overview of patients' and family caregivers' perspectives on which clinicians' communication behaviors can harm. Harm could be prevented when information and decision involvement are tailored and patients' and family caregivers' needs to feel seen, heard, held and remembered are met. Show less
Dam, C.J. van; Algera, M.H.; Olofsen, E.; Aarts, L.; Smith, T.; Velzen, M. van; ... ; Dahan, A. 2020
Opioids are complex drugs that produce profit (most importantly analgesia) as well as a myriad of adverse effects including gastrointestinal motility disturbances, abuse and addiction, sedation and... Show moreOpioids are complex drugs that produce profit (most importantly analgesia) as well as a myriad of adverse effects including gastrointestinal motility disturbances, abuse and addiction, sedation and potentially lethal respiratory depression (RD). Consequently, opioid treatment requires careful evaluation in terms of benefit on the one hand and harm on the other. Considering benefit and harm from an economic perspective, opioid treatment should lead to profit maximization with decision theory defining utility as (profit - loss). We here focus on the most devastating opioid adverse effect, RD and define opioid utility U = P(benefit) - P(harm), where P(benefit) is the probability of opioid-induced analgesia and P(harm) the probability of opioid-induced RD. Other utility functions are also discussed including the utility U = P(benefit AND NOT harm), the most wanted opioid effect, i.e., analgesia without RD, and utility surfaces, which depict the continuum of probabilities of presence or absence of analgesia in combination with the presence or absence of RD. Utility functions are constructed from pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic data sets, although pragmatic utility functions may be constructed when pharmacokinetic data are not available. We here discuss utilities of several opioids including the partial mu-opioid-receptor agonist buprenorphine, the full opioid receptor agonists fentanyl and alfentanil, and the bifunctional opioid cebranopadol, which acts at mu-opioid and nociception/orphanin FQ-receptors. We argue that utility functions give clinicians the opportunity to make an informed decision when opioid analgesics are needed for pain relief, in which opioids with a positive utility function are preferred over opioids with negative functions. Furthermore, utility functions of subpopulations will give an extra insight as a utility functions measured in one subgroup (e.g., patients with postoperative pain, good opioid responders) may not be mirrored in other patient subgroups ( e.g., neuropathic pain patients, poor opioid responders). Show less