[Psychiatric disorders in palliative care and at the end of life]

Patients confronted to advanced organic diseases at a palliative stage can present psychological distress that might announce the occurrence of genuine psychiatric disorders. Some frequent and comprehensible symptoms such as sadness, mild agitation, anxiety or more disturbing such as hallucinations, delusions or suicidal ideations must alert the clinician who should not minimize them by attributing them in a reactive way to the consequences of the evolution of physical disease or treatment's side effects. Literature data regarding psychiatric disorders (mainly anxiety disorders, delirium and depressive disorders) in palliative care are emerging and can guide clinicians in their role to detect them and providing early and efficient management. Occurrence of warning symptoms of psychiatric disorders can impaired quality of life and impact the prognosis of patients already weakened by the context of an advanced physical disease. The clinician will have to be careful to any psychiatric prodromic symptom and not hesitate to treat and to refer if necessary to a heath mental professional.