Physical and Psychosocial Symptoms of Young Adult Patients Referred to the Supportive Care Mobile Team.

Young adult (YA) aged cancer patients have unique psychosocial needs with studies indicating more symptoms and emotional distress compared to older patients. Our study aimed to compare clinical characteristics and symptom distress between YAs and older adults. We retrospectively studied 896 randomly selected patients across 3 age groups: 18-39 YAs ( = 297), 40-64 ( = 300), and 65 and older ( = 299).

Frequency of and Factors Associated With Nonmedical Opioid Use Behavior Among Patients With Cancer Receiving Opioids for Cancer Pain.

Importance: One of the main aims of research on nonmedical opioid use (NMOU) is to reduce the frequency of NMOU behaviors through interventions such as universal screening, reduced opioid exposure, and more intense follow-up of patients with elevated risk. The absence of data on the frequency of NMOU behavior is the major barrier to conducting research on NMOU.

Objective: To determine the overall frequency of and the independent predictors for NMOU behavior.

Enhancing palliative care patient access to psychological counseling through outreach telehealth services.

Context: Palliative care encompasses an interdisciplinary team, including mental health care professionals, to address psychological distress of cancer patients.

Objectives: To present the implementation of an outreach counseling program via videoconferencing or telephone to patients receiving care in an outpatient palliative care clinic and to compare patients using this service to those who only received psychological counseling in our outpatient clinic.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of cancer patients seen for psychology counseling services in an outpatient supportive care center between June 2015 and March 2017.