Acetonuria Rare

Abstract

<h3>Abstract</h3> <b>Objective</b> To assess how euthanasia in terminally ill cancer patients affects the grief response of bereaved family and friends. <b>Design</b> Cross sectional study. <b>Setting</b> Tertiary referral centre for oncology patients in Utrecht, the Netherlands. <b>Participants</b> 189 bereaved family members and close friends of terminally ill cancer patients who died by euthanasia and 316 bereaved family members and close friends of comparable cancer patients who died a natural death between 1992 and 1999. <b>Main outcome measures</b> Symptoms of traumatic grief assessed by the inventory of traumatic grief, current feelings of grief assessed by the Texas revised inventory of grief, and post-traumatic stress reactions assessed by the impact of event scale. <b>Results</b> The bereaved family and friends of cancer patients who died by euthanasia had less traumatic grief symptoms (adjusted difference −5.29 (95% confidence interval −8.44 to −2.15)), less current feeling of grief (adjusted difference 2.93 (0.85 to 5.01)); and less post-traumatic stress reactions (adjusted difference −2.79 (−5.33 to −0.25)) than the family and friends of patients who died of natural causes. These differences were independent of other risk factors. <b>Conclusions</b> The bereaved family and friends of cancer patients who died by euthanasia coped better with respect to grief symptoms and post-traumatic stress reactions than the bereaved of comparable cancer patients who died a natural death. These results should not be interpreted as a plea for euthanasia, but as a plea for the same level of care and openness in all patients who are terminally ill.