Pain and self-care behaviours in adult patients with end-stage liver disease: a longitudinal description.

This prospective descriptive study investigated pain characteristics in 20 outpatients with endstage liver disease (ESLD) who were approaching the end of life, described variability in pain between and within patients, and described the pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain management strategies used. The instruments we utilized were the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the self-care behaviour (SCB) log for pain. Data were collected once a month over a six-month period.

End-stage liver disease: challenges and practice implications.

As the seventh leading cause of death among people aged 25 to 64 years, end-stage liver disease (ESLD) affects many Americans in the most productive years of their lives. Despite the increasing number of individuals who are dying of ESLD, little is documented about their end of life challenges as the disease progresses. The purpose of this article is to highlight specific challenges for people with ESLD, their families, and their implications for health care providers: ascites, spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, hepatic encephalopathy, malnutrition, altered drug metabolism, renal insufficiency and hyponatremia, hepatocellular carcinoma, and pain.

Depression comorbidity and antidepressant use in veterans with chronic hepatitis C: results from a retrospective chart review.

Background: The 2002 National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference Statement recommended that both clinical and research efforts be made to increase the availability of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment to patients who were previously ineligible because of comorbid psychiatric illness and substance use disorders. However, little research on patients with HCV and comorbid depression has been conducted that can serve to inform and guide treatment of HCV. In this study we characterize the prevalence and severity of co-morbid depression, as well as antidepressant and other psychotropic prescribing patterns, in a sample of U.