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Palliative Care Psychiatry: Update on an Emerging Dimension of Psychiatric Practice

  • Geriatric Disorders (H Lavretsky, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Palliative care psychiatry is an emerging subspecialty field at the intersection of Palliative Medicine and Psychiatry. The discipline brings expertise in understanding the psychosocial dimensions of human experience to the care of dying patients and support of their families. The goals of this review are (1) to briefly define palliative care and summarize the evidence for its benefits, (2) to describe the roles for psychiatry within palliative care, (3) to review recent advances in the research and practice of palliative care psychiatry, and (4) to delineate some steps ahead as this sub-field continues to develop, in terms of research, education, and systems-based practice.

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Acknowledgment

This paper was supported by research funding from the National Institute of Mental Health (Scott A. Irwin).

Conflict of Interest

Nathan Fairman declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Scott A. Irwin declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UC Davis School of Medicine, Sacramento, CA, USA

    Nathan Fairman

  2. San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA

    Scott A. Irwin

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Scott A. Irwin

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  1. Nathan Fairman
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Correspondence to Scott A. Irwin.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Geriatric Disorders

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Fairman, N., Irwin, S.A. Palliative Care Psychiatry: Update on an Emerging Dimension of Psychiatric Practice. Curr Psychiatry Rep 15, 374 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-013-0374-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-013-0374-3

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