Drug control of common symptoms in the terminally ill patient

St Christophers' Hospice near London is now internationally known as a special centre for the care of terminally ill patients. In these cases, the relief of symptoms is paramount, and prominent among those symptoms is pain. Such pain can almost always be relieved without euphoria or lessening of consciousness. More than 60% of patients admitted to St Christopher's complain of pain, and the scheme of management outlined below results in substantial or complete relief of pain in all of them. Addiction does not occur when control of the patient's pain is part of the pattern of total care. The author considers management of pain of varying severity, together with associated symptoms such as vomiting, anorexia, dry mouth and hiccup, dyspnoea, cough, anxiety and depression, insomnia, constipation and diarrhoea.