open access
Relieving chronic breathlessness is a human right
Affiliations- University of Technology Sydney, Australia
- Department of Palliative Care, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Poland
open access
Abstract
Chronic breathlessness, defined as breathlessness that persists despite optimising the treatment of underlying causes, is recognised by recent international consensus as a distinct clinical syndrome. Across our communities, population-based studies of chronic breathlessness expose an enormous burden from this. Among the palliative care population, one in four people die with severe breathlessness despite treatment from a palliative care service. Recently, the relief of breathlessness was claimed to be a human right, particularly when there are treatments available to alleviate the unnecessary suffering caused by chronic breathlessness. The timely recognition of, and response to chronic breathlessness is a crucial clinical skill.
Abstract
Chronic breathlessness, defined as breathlessness that persists despite optimising the treatment of underlying causes, is recognised by recent international consensus as a distinct clinical syndrome. Across our communities, population-based studies of chronic breathlessness expose an enormous burden from this. Among the palliative care population, one in four people die with severe breathlessness despite treatment from a palliative care service. Recently, the relief of breathlessness was claimed to be a human right, particularly when there are treatments available to alleviate the unnecessary suffering caused by chronic breathlessness. The timely recognition of, and response to chronic breathlessness is a crucial clinical skill.
Keywords
palliative care, chronic breathlessness, health and well-being, human right, chronic disease
About this articleTitle
Relieving chronic breathlessness is a human right
Journal
Palliative Medicine in Practice
Issue
Article type
Review paper
Pages
8-10
Published online
2018-05-02
Page views
546
Article views/downloads
422
Bibliographic record
Palliat Med Pract 2018;12(1):8-10.
Keywords
palliative care
chronic breathlessness
health and well-being
human right
chronic disease
Authors
David Christopher Currow
Małgorzata Krajnik
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