Q J Med 2003; 96: 375-378
© 2003 Association of Physicians
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Palliative psychopharmacology: a putative speciality to optimize the subjective quality of life
From the School of Biology, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
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The palliative perspective |
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Mainstream medicine is concerned with the diagnosis and management of disease. Control of symptoms is important, but subordinated to control of disease. However, when a disease is judged to be incurable or ‘terminal’, it may be better to manage the patient palliatively. The difference is that palliative medicine uses the medical armamentarium to optimize quality of life rather than maximize the chances of curing or preventing disease.
Mainstream psychiatry aims to cure, control or prevent psychological disease. To this end, it deploys an armamentarium of psychopharmacological agents (and psychological therapies). But if life itself is regarded as a terminal disease, and one that is for some people characterized by chronic and severe psychological symptoms, then there is a role for a palliative speciality that deploys the psychiatric armamentarium to optimize the subjective quality of life. In short, a speciality which aims to make people feel better. Such a speciality could
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Not psychiatry |
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Making people feel better |
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PP patients |
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The practice of PP |
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Logistics |
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