Palliative care in the ambulatory geriatric practice

Geriatrics and palliative care often overlap. This article focuses on 2 areas where the disciplines may differ in their approach. The first is planning for extreme illness and death, with explicit acknowledgment that limiting therapy might be a good idea. This situation is likely to have a different impact in the course of a routine geriatrics visit than in a palliative care context. The second is pain management, especially chronic pain. In patients with sharply limited life expectancy, the risk/benefit equation tilts easily toward narcotic use. In frail elders working to remain independent, the calculus may be quite different.