Published on: September 27, 2014

Please see the article on Prescribing practices for nausea in palliative care published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine. (The whole article is available for free download.) Ref: Timothy H.M., Agar Meera, Yates Patsy, and Currow David C.. Journal of Palliative Medicine. September 2014, 17(9): 1032-1036. doi:10.1089/jpm.2013.0610.

The article shows that for nausea in palliative care, clinicians were widely using metoclopramide as the first line agent (69%), followed by haloperidol(26%). The international data show that Ondansetron was used by an almost non-existent minority; then why is it used so widely in India, especially remembering that it is expensive and constipating, and also that constipation is a very common symptom encountered in palliative care? Do we have any evidence favouring it in the majority of palliative care situations? Is it simply not the power of the healthcare industry in promoting it and we, gullible professionals, swallowing everything meted out to us?