Assistant professor of psychiatry at the Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
Assistant professor in the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
AMA J Ethics. 2023 Sep 1;25(9):E655-660. doi: 10.1001/amajethics.2023.655.
Palliative interventions are intended to alleviate suffering and improve quality, not quantity, of life and are not intended to cure illness. In psychiatry, uncertainty about which interventions count as palliative stems from the fact that psychiatry generally prioritizes symptom management irrespective of diagnosis or specific pathophysiology of illness. This commentary on a case considers how distinctions between palliative and other psychiatric interventions might not be all that helpful in resolving clinical and ethical questions about which interventions are-and when they are-appropriate.
姑息治疗干预旨在减轻痛苦，提高生活质量（而不是数量），并不旨在治愈疾病。在精神病学中，对于哪些干预措施算作姑息治疗存在不确定性，这是因为精神病学通常优先考虑症状管理，而不论诊断或疾病的特定病理生理学如何。本文对一个病例的评论考虑了在解决关于哪些干预措施是（以及何时是）合适的临床和伦理问题时，姑息治疗和其他精神科干预措施之间的区别可能并不那么有帮助。
