• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.135-143
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• 2021

End-of-life patients experience physical, mental, social, and existential distress. While medical personnel provide medication and care to alleviate patients' distress, listening to and interacting with patients remains essential for understanding their psychological condition. The most important tool, though difficult to implement in practice, is end-of-life discussion (EOLD). EOLD has been shown to have positive effects on end-of-life treatment choices, achievement of patients' life goals, improvements in the quality of life of patients and their families, and the prevention of depression and complicated grief among bereaved family members. EOLD is not often undertaken in clinical practice, however, due to hesitancy among medical personnel and patients for various reasons. In order to conduct an EOLD, the patient's judgment, psychiatric illnesses such as delirium and depression, and psychological issues such as the side effects of psychotropic drugs, denial, and collusion must be evaluated. Open and honest conversation, treatment goal setting, the doctor's familiarity with the patient's background, and attentiveness when providing information are important elements for any dialogue. Meaning-centered psychotherapy was developed to alleviate the existential distress of cancer patients, and its application may promote EOLD. The future development of meaning-centered psychotherapy in practice and in research is expected to further promote EOLD.

• Anxiety and mood
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.161-166
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• 2012

Though infanticide, killing the baby after birth of the neonate and denial of pregnancy, are very rare psychiatric disorder, they have been receiving a lot of social concerns. We report and review infanticide and denial of pregnancy administration in a 19 year-old adolescent with bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. Patients with a young age, cognitive immaturity, an unwanted child, hid the pregnancy facts were consistent with the results of previous studies. In addition, the patient's impulsivity and emotional instability is affecting infanticide. After inpatient care with pharmacotherapy (escitalopram 20mg, alprazolam 1.5 mg, clonazepam 0.5 mg, valproate sodium 1,100-1,300 mg, and quetiapine 100-400 mg) and supportive psychotherapy, and there were significant improvement of clinical symptoms.