Observational studyPloS one2016
No Negative Impact of Palliative Sedation on Relatives' Experience of the Dying Phase and Their Wellbeing after the Patient's Death: An Observational Study.
Observational study in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family members' experiences of palliative sedation -a systematic integrative review.BMC palliative care · 2026Pooled it
- Effects of sedative practices on grief in the spouse of a patient who has died of cancer. An international systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Continuous deep sedation until death in terminal cancer: a lexicometric analysis of professionals' and relatives' experience.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Article
- Current Status and Future Directions of Research on Palliative Sedation.Journal of hospice and palliative care · 2022Article
- Family experience of palliative sedation therapy: proportional vs. continuous deep sedation.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2022Article
- Developing and testing a nurse-led intervention to support bereavement in relatives in the intensive care (BRIC study): a protocol of a pre-post intervention study.BMC palliative care · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPalliative sedation is the widely-used intervention of administering sedating agents to induce a state of unconsciousness to take away a dying patient's perception of otherwise irrelievable symptoms. However, it remains questionable whether this ethically complex intervention is beneficial for patients and whether the associated lack of communication in the last phase of life has a negative impact on relatives' wellbeing.
methodsAn observational questionnaire study was conducted among relatives of a consecutive sample of patients who died a non-sudden death in the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute or in the hospice 'Laurens Cadenza' (both in Rotterdam) between 2010 and 2013.
resultsRelatives filled in questionnaires regarding 151 patients who had been sedated and 90 patients who had not been sedated. The median time since all patients had passed away was 21 (IQR 14-32) months. No significant differences were found in relatives´ assessments of the quality of end-of-life care, patients´ quality of life in the last week before death and their quality of dying, between patients who did and did not receive sedation, or in relatives' satisfaction with their own life, their general health and their mental wellbeing after the patient's death.
conclusionsThe use of sedation in these patients appears to have no negative effect on bereaved relatives' evaluation of the patient's dying phase, or on their own wellbeing after the patient's death.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.