Abstract

USE OF OPIACEA IN PATIENTS WITH CANCER AS PALLIATIVE CARE: REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Caroline Carvalho Minali Del Guerra, Ana Laura Remédio Zeni Beretta*

ABSTRACT

According to the World Health Organization, it is unquestionable that cancer is a public health problem, therefore he importance of palliative care arises. It is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and families through the prevention and relief of suffering through early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other physical, psychosocial and spiritual problems. Pain is of great intensity in cancer patients. Cancer is one of the major diseases that generate the need for palliative care and an end-of-life care structure with estimates by the National Cancer Institute for 2010 showing that of the total population of the country, approximately 489,270 will develop new cases of cancer. Pharmaceutical care in palliative care is mainly focused on informing the availability of medicines to other team members regarding pharmacotechnical possibilities and legal aspects, as well as patients and their families, regarding the correct use and storage of medicines. The objective of the present study was to verify the importance of the use of opioid drugs in cancer patients, aimed at palliative care. For the preparation of the review we used scientific productions indexed in the databases Scielo, Lillacs, Medline, and Google Scholar published in the last 20 years. The present study suggests that cultural and spiritual factors, coupled with those involving pain prevalence and the use of opiates, can be a rich thematic source providing the population with a better quality of life without the misfortune of pain.

Keywords: Cancer. Palliative care. Opioid. Pharmaceutical care.