Creating a palliative care clinic for patients with cancer pain and substance use disorder

Creating a palliative care clinic for patients with cancer pain and substance use disorder
Journal of Pain and Symptom Management; Sachin S Kale, Gennaro Di Tosto, Laura J Rush, Justin Kullgren, Deborah Russell, Martin Fried, Blessing Igboeli, Julie Teater, Katie Fitzgerald Jones, Devon K Check, Jessica Merlin, Ann Scheck McAlearney; 8/24
Opioids are a first-line treatment for severe cancer pain. However, clinicians may be reluctant to prescribe opioids for patients with concurrent substance use disorders (SUD) or clinical concerns about non-prescribed substance use. We created the Palliative Harm Reduction and Resiliency Clinic, a palliative care clinic founded on harm reduction principles and including formal collaboration with addiction psychiatry. The formal collaboration with addiction psychiatry and the integration of harm reduction principles and practices into ambulatory palliative care improved our ability to provide treatment to a previously underserved patient population with high symptom burden.