Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Mental Health and Serious Illness

Palliative care has long recognized the importance of treating the whole person to address a patient's physical, mental, and spiritual suffering. To address psychological suffering, palliative care often draws upon the pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy offered by psychiatry. Several new developments have occurred in the past decade within psychiatry that impact palliative care. For example, the recent updating of the Diagnostic and Stastistical Manual of Mental Disorders has led to renewed discussions on how to best distinguish grief from depression or recognize that both may be present at the same time. In this article, we draw upon a team of psychiatric, palliative care, and dual-trained physicians to highlight the "Top 10" tips from psychiatry to provide relief for patients with chronic disease or at the end of life.