ArticlePalliative medicine reports2025
Pharmacological Strategies for Pain Relief in Patients with Terminal Delirium: A Secondary Data Analysis.
Article in Palliative medicine reports, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: Terminally ill cancer patients often experience pain and delirium. However, opioids administered for pain management may exacerbate patients' delirium. Objectives: To explore the real-world symptom trajectory associated with pharmacological interventions, including opioids and antipsychotics, in patients with cancer pain and terminal delirium. Design: A secondary analysis of a multicenter prospective observational study. Setting/Subjects: Adult patients admitted to inpatient hospice or palliative care units in Japan. Participants were eligible if they had cancer pain (Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale: IPOS ≥2) and delirium at the time that their Palliative Performance Scale had declined to ≤20 (day 1, immediately before death). Measurements: Pharmacological strategies, pain levels (using the IPOS), and delirium symptoms (using the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale, item-9). Results: Among a total of 1896 patients, 1396 were assessed for eligibility on day 1, and 137 met the inclusion criteria for analysis. A total of 86 (63%) patients had agitated delirium (hyperactive or mixed) with a median survival time of three days. Regarding pharmacological strategies, 32 (23%) received opioid initiation/dose escalation and 94 (69%) received regular administration of antipsychotics. These figures also included 25 (18%) patients who received both opioid initiation/dose escalation and antipsychotics. Approximately 55% of all patients had persistent cancer pain (IPOS for pain ≥2) on day 2. Among those with agitated delirium, 79% continued to exhibit agitation symptoms on day 2. Conclusion: Despite specialized palliative care, the combined distress of cancer pain and delirium in the last days of life remains complex and refractory.
Indexed as
Identifiers
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.