Top Ten Tips for Caring for Seriously Ill Patients with Stimulant Use Disorder
An article published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine offers ten practical tips for palliative care clinicians caring for seriously ill patients with current or prior stimulant use disorder (StUD), a common but under-addressed condition in palliative care settings. The authors, a multidisciplinary group of clinicians, address diagnosing StUD, engaging patients in a patient-centered, trauma-informed way to mitigate bias and stigma, managing pain safely given the impact of stimulant use on opioid risk and toxicity, and referring to addiction medicine colleagues when appropriate.