Palliative Care in Parkinson's Disease and other Movement Disorders. Recommendations and protocol of a...

One of the current challenges in Parkinson's disease (PD) and other movement disorders (MD) is how and when to apply palliative care. Aware of the scarce training and implementation of this type of approach, we propose some consensual recommendations for palliative care (PC) in order to improve the quality of life of patients and their environment.

After a first phase of needs analysis through a survey carried out on Spanish neurologists and a review of the literature, we describe recommendations for action structured in: palliative care models, selection of the target population, when, where and how to implement the PC.

Models of neuropalliative care are reviewed, advocating for the role of the neurologist as a driving force. The members of the multidisciplinary team are described, as well as the main clinical markers and tools that help the clinician to decide which patients have greater palliative needs; sender and receiver are defined and it is detailed in what evolutionary moment and how to proceed when sending the patient to palliative care. A scheme of steps to follow in any PC protocol, whether basic or specialized, is provided, emphasizing the framework in the shared planning of care and the comprehensive approach.

It would be desirable to integrate the PC in the management of PD and other MD and to validate models of neuropalliative care in our environment, analyzing their usefulness through the use of indicators, in order to improve the care and quality of life of our patients.