Top Ten Tips All Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a trauma- and stressor-related disorder that may substantially affect patients with serious illness. Patients may encounter palliative care (PC) with preexisting PTSD, develop trauma-related symptoms during the course of serious illness, or experience reactivation of prior traumatic stress through medical care and associated loss of control. PTSD can complicate symptom assessment, communication, decision-making, engagement with care, and quality of life. Management in serious illness also requires clinicians to adapt standard psychiatric approaches to prognosis, medical comorbidity, treatment burden, and goals of care. In this article, a multidisciplinary team provides 10 practical tips to help PC clinicians recognize PTSD, respond to trauma-related distress, use trauma-informed care, select appropriate treatments, and address trauma-related suffering near the end of life.