[Advance directives in general practice].

View the fact of a doubling percentage of people aged 80 and over in the coming 20 years the topic of advance directives (AD) will play a more important role in general practice. It is the task of the GP as the integrating professional in any palliative care network to provide discussion and advice and to collaborate with the patient for a reliable version. Formulating AD's in principal means a life long process respectfully accompanied by the GP. By this approach AD's facilitate the discussion about taboos and serve as a valuable instrument for decision making, both for the patient and the GP. There are many reasons to address AD's in our daily clinical practice and to document it routinely in our medical charts as systematic as "allergies" or "vaccinations". From a recent study we learn that the most simple version of AD's is preferred by patients with 77 % of pre-existing and 81 % of newly written AD's consisting of one page only. Longer and more complex versions may produce fears.