(STAT News) – The main objective of palliative care is to maximize the patient’s comfort and quality of life by effectively controlling symptoms, especially pain, while providing psychological and spiritual support. Palliative care is gaining traction in the United States and is used in the care of patients with cancer, stroke, kidney failure, and other terminal medical conditions.

While it is increasingly accepted when it comes to physical illness, determining where it fits in clinical psychiatry is far more complicated. Now that Canada plans to implement a program of medical aid in dying for certain people with mental illness (though it has been delayed repeatedly), discussing palliative psychiatry is all the more critical. (Read More)