While the political debate over end-of-life counseling continues, a recent study has found that offering such care to dying cancer patients improves their mood and quality of life.
The study of 322 patients in rural New Hampshire and Vermont also suggests the counseling didn’t discourage people from going to the hospital. The research didn’t look at costs.
In the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in August, trained nurses did the end-of-life counseling, mostly by phone, with patients and family caregivers, using a model based on national guidelines.
All the patients in the study had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Half were assigned to receive usual care. The other half received usual care plus counseling about managing symptoms, communicating with health care providers and finding hospice care.
Patients and their caregivers also could attend monthly 90-minute group meetings with a doctor and a nurse to ask questions and discuss problems in what’s called a ‘‘shared medical appointment.’’
Patients who received the counseling scored higher on quality of life and mood measures than patients who did not.
On the quality of life scale, patients could score up to 184 points. The groups were about 10 points apart in the last assessment before they died. On the mood scale, patients could score up to 60 points and the groups were about 5 points apart.
The patients who got the counseling also lived longer, by more than five months on average, but that finding didn’t reach a statistical level of significance.
Patients getting such counseling often thank the nurses helping them, said lead author Marie Bakitas, a researcher and nurse practitioner at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H.
‘‘They seem to feel a whole lot better knowing there’s someone who’s looking at the rest of them and not just the tumor,’’ Bakitas said.
‘‘This is about helping people live with the diagnosis the doctor has given,’’ said Betty Ferrell of City of Hope National Medical Center in Los Angeles County. “This study reflects on what kind of support do people deserve when they’re dying.’’ — ap