Nursing care (palliative medicine) in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Palliative medicine is a special status focusing on the quality of life of patients suffering from special or advanced diseases. Palliative medicine can be helpful at any stage of the disease, including the diagnosis. Thus, the present study aims at reviewing the application of palliative care in mental disorders. METHOD: In the present study, as many as 1,149 studies were found in the period of 1985 to 2018 by searching on different websites including Medline, Embase, ProQuest, Global Health, GoogleScholar, and Scopus. As many as 53 studies having to do with mental disorders were found, and more specifically, as many as 36 articles related to palliative medicine were applied. FINDINGS: Reviewing the related literature indicates that the care needs of mental disorders patients are quite complicated. The findings indicated that predicting the complications of the disease, as well as advanced planning in terms of caring for these patients, are of significant importance. The findings indicated that over the last decade two palliative care models have been developed: integrative and consultative. CONCLUSION: With the growth development of palliative care in developed countries, the knowledge of palliative care can be shared with the nurses and practitioners of neurological diseases, and this knowledge can be applied to palliate and reduce the pains and sufferings of the patients and their families.