The Value of Rehabilitation Medicine for Patients Receiving Palliative Care

Background: Rehabilitation medicine is a multidisciplinary field aimed at improving patients' quality of life by improving function. Patients receiving palliative care frequently share common symptoms including fatigue, decreased functional independence, mood disorders, pain, and breathlessness. Many rehabilitation interventions can improve these symptoms.

Objective: To evaluate the scope and effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions and exercise programs in improving quality of life and distressing symptoms in patients receiving palliative care.

Methods: We conducted a literature review of cancer rehabilitation topics and techniques specifically applied to patients with life-limiting conditions. Exercise and other rehabilitation interventions were analyzed for their effects on common symptoms and disabilities experienced by this patient population.

Conclusion: Current available literature supports the use of exercise programs and rehabilitation interventions to improve fatigue, mood, functional independence, breathlessness, and pain. Rehabilitation and palliative care practitioners share many goals in their approach to patient care and augment one another well. Palliative care providers should consider referral to physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation) to help optimize patients' quality of life.