The Experience of Breathlessness: the Social Course of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Overview

Journal J Pain Symptom Manage

Publisher Elsevier

Specialties Critical Care
Pharmacology
Psychiatry

Date 2010 Mar 23

PMID 20303029

Citations 21

Authors

Marjolein Gysels

Irene J Higginson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Context: There is a trend toward extending palliative care to nonmalignant diseases. There is no evidence that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) requires its own model.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate how the experience of breathlessness in COPD influences patients' attitudes toward the end of life and their quality of life.

Methods: Eighteen patients were purposively sampled. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and participant observation during outpatient consultations. Narrative methods were used to analyze the data.

Results: Treatment-seeking in COPD deviated from prototypical trajectories. Contact with health care was postponed to crisis point. Treatment did not follow diagnosis because of how the diagnosis was given. Help was sought when the symptom had acquired meaning in a person's life. The future did not feature in the interviews.

Conclusion: Good communication practices are fundamental in the care for COPD patients. Particularly, diagnosis and prognosis need to be rethought in a model to suit the condition of COPD.

Citing Articles

A narrative review of proactive palliative care models for people with COPD.

Pascoe A, Chen X, Smallwood N Ther Adv Respir Dis. 2025; 19:17534666241310987.

PMID: 39921549 PMC: 11807278. DOI: 10.1177/17534666241310987.

Patients' and their caregivers' experiences with regular, low-dose, sustained-release morphine for chronic breathlessness associated with COPD: a qualitative study.

Ferreira D, Kochovska S, Honson A, Phillips J, Currow D BMJ Open Respir Res. 2022; 9(1).

PMID: 35606022 PMC: 9125765. DOI: 10.1136/bmjresp-2022-001210.

How Physicians in South India Recognize, Assess, and Manage People with Chronic Breathlessness Syndrome: A Thematic Analysis.

Barnes-Harris M, Daniel S, Venkateswaran C, Hutchinson A, Johnson M Indian J Palliat Care. 2021; 27(1):54-61.

PMID: 34035618 PMC: 8121231. DOI: 10.4103/IJPC.IJPC_139_20.

Palliative and End-of-Life Care Conversations with Older People with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Croatia-A Pilot Study.

cicak P, Thompson S, Popovic-Grle S, Fijacko V, Lukinac J, Lukinac A Healthcare (Basel). 2020; 8(3).

PMID: 32825316 PMC: 7551859. DOI: 10.3390/healthcare8030282.

Two faces of the same coin: a qualitative study of patients' and carers' coexistence with chronic breathlessness associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Ferreira D, Kochovska S, Honson A, Phillips J, Currow D BMC Palliat Care. 2020; 19(1):64.

PMID: 32375747 PMC: 7203967. DOI: 10.1186/s12904-020-00572-7.