Top Things to Know: Palliative Pharmacotherapy for Cardiovascular Disease
Published: July 01, 2024
Prepared by Paul St. Laurent, DNP, RN; Vice President, Science and Medicine
- Palliative care is important in managing cardiovascular disease (CVD), as it reduces physical symptom burden, manages emotional and spiritual distress, supports caregivers, and helps patients make decisions aligned with their goals of care.
- Palliative pharmacotherapy, including cardiovascular (CV) drugs and common palliative medicines, can be used throughout the clinical course of CVD to control symptoms and improve quality of life.
- Deprescribing is an essential component of palliative care for individuals with multiple chronic conditions, including CVD.
- Cardiovascular drugs, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers, and diuretics, are commonly used to manage heart failure and improve symptoms.
- Evaluating medications for other CV conditions and considering individual patient factors and goals is an important aspect of care.
- Palliative CV medicines can be combined with common palliative medicines to manage symptoms in individuals with CVD.
- Team-based care, involving collaboration between cardiology, primary care, and specialty palliative care teams, is crucial in providing effective and patient-centered palliative care.
- Specialty-aligned palliative care (SAPC) is a model of co-management that partners interprofessional subspeciality teams with primary care and other specialty clinicians to provide comprehensive care for individuals with advanced CVD.
- Disparities in access to palliative care exist based on race, ethnicity, gender, and social determinants of health.
- Further research is needed to evaluate the effectiveness of palliative pharmacotherapy and SAPC on patient outcomes and address the specific needs of underrepresented populations in palliative care.
Citation
Di Palo KE, Feder S, Baggenstos YT, Cornelio CK, Forman DE, Goyal P, Kwak MJ, McIlvennan CK; on behalf of the American Heart Association Clinical Pharmacology Committee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology and Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing. Palliative pharmacotherapy for cardiovascular disease: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes. Published online July 1, 2024. doi: 10.1161/HCQ.0000000000000131