Home Care NetWork
Home Care Literature Reviews 2004
Palliative Care:
Bercovitch M, Adunsky A. Patterns of high-dose morphine use in a home-care hospice service: should we be afraid of it? Cancer. 2004;101:1473-7.
This is Israeli case series of 661 patients followed by homecare hospice team compared the use of high dose morphine with standard dose morphine in terms of various patient outcomes. The authors reported that 65.8% of survey patients received morphine for pain relief. Only 9% received a dose of greater than or equal to 300 mg of morphine daily. The authors could find no convincing evidence of adverse effects from high dose morphine use and reported in there was no correlation between the dose of morphine and patient longevity.The use of high dose morphine was safe in this study and its findings are consistent with current trends in the use of morphine in this country.
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