A European survey on attitudes towards pain and end-of-life issues in locked-in syndrome.
Brain Inj
; 28(9): 1209-15, 2014.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-24911332
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
Patients with locked-in syndrome often self-report a higher quality of life than generally expected. This study reports third-person attitudes towards several salient issues on locked-in syndrome.METHODS:
Close-ended survey among conference attendees from 33 European countries. Analysis included chi-square tests and logistic regressions.RESULTS:
From the 3332 respondents (33% physicians, 18% other clinicians, 49% other professions; 47% religious), 90% agreed that patients with locked-in syndrome can feel pain. The majority (75%) disagreed with treatment withdrawal, but 56% did not wish to be kept alive if they imagined themselves in this condition (p < 0.001). Religious and southern Europeans opposed to treatment withdrawal more often than non-religious (p < 0.001) and participants from the North (p = 0.001). When the locked-in syndrome was compared to disorders of consciousness, more respondents endorsed that being in a chronic locked-in syndrome was worse than being in a vegetative state or minimally conscious state for patients (59%) than they thought for families (40%, p < 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
Personal characteristics mediate opinions about locked-in syndrome. The dissociation between personal preferences and general opinions underlie the difference in perspective in disability. Ethical responses to dilemmas involving patients with locked-in syndrome should consider the diverging ethical attitudes of stakeholders.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Bases de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Quadriplegia
/
Atitude do Pessoal de Saúde
/
Atitude Frente a Morte
/
Diretivas Antecipadas
/
Suspensão de Tratamento
/
Percepção da Dor
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
/
Qualitative_research
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
Europa
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Brain Inj
Assunto da revista:
CEREBRO
Ano de publicação:
2014
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Bélgica