Cancer patients can present with impossible behavior, which can jeopardize their treatment and challenge healthcare professionals’ teamwork.

Report of two unusual psychiatric cases, including Munchausen and Peter Pan syndromes, which occurred in a comprehensive cancer center.

Guidelines in medical and surgical wards are suggested to address such situations regarding oncologic compliance.

Multidisciplinary collaboration between medical and surgical teams and the psycho-oncologic department is highly recommended.

The majority of self-management interventions are designed with a narrow focus on patient skills and fail to consider their potential as “catalysts” for improving care delivery. A project was undertaken to develop a patient self-management resource to support evidence-based, person-centered care for cancer pain and overcome barriers at the levels of the patient, provider, and health system.

The project used a mixed-method design with concurrent triangulation, including the following: a national online survey of current practice; two systematic reviews of cancer pain needs and education; a desktop review of online patient pain diaries and other related resources; consultation with stakeholders; and interviews with patients regarding acceptability and usefulness of a draft resource.

Findings suggested that an optimal self-management resource should encourage pain reporting, build patients’ sense of control, and support communication with providers and coordination between services. Each of these characteristics was identified as important in overcoming established barriers to cancer pain care. A pain self-management resource was developed to include: (1) a template for setting specific, measureable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals of care, as well as identifying potential obstacles and ways to overcome these; and (2) a pain management plan detailing exacerbating and alleviating factors, current strategies for management, and contacts for support.

Self-management resources have the potential for addressing barriers not only at the patient level, but also at provider and health system levels. A cluster randomized controlled trial is under way to test effectiveness of the resource designed in this project in combination with pain screening, audit and feedback, and provider education. More research of this kind is needed to understand how interventions at different levels can be optimally combined to overcome barriers and improve care.

Although thiamine deficiency (TD) and Wernicke encephalopathy (WE) are not rare in cancer patients, the cases reported to date developed TD and/or WE after treatment had started.

From a series of cancer patients, we report a patient diagnosed with TD without the typical clinical symptoms of WE at the preoperative psychiatric examination.

A 43-year-old woman with ovarian cancer was referred by her oncologist to the psycho-oncology outpatient clinic for preoperative psychiatric evaluation. Her tumor had been growing rapidly before the referral. Although she did not develop delirium, cerebellar signs, or eye symptoms, we suspected she might have developed TD because of her 2-month loss of appetite as the storage capacity of thiamine in the body is approximately 18 days. The diagnosis of TD was supported by abnormally low serum thiamine levels.

Cancer therapists need to be aware that thiamine deficiency may occur even before the start of cancer treatment. In cases with a loss of appetite of more than 2 weeks’ duration, in particular, thiamine deficiency should be considered if the tumor is rapidly increasing, regardless of the presence or absence of delirium.

People with severe persistent mental illness (SPMI) experience a greater burden and severity of chronic disease, late diagnosis, and premature death compared with the general population. Those with SPMI also receive fewer medical treatments, poor quality of care, and are less likely to receive palliative care. A systematic scoping review was undertaken to determine the extent, range, and nature of research activity about people with SPMI requiring palliative care, and to identify gaps and opportunities for future research.

A systematic scoping review was undertaken in September 2017 and updated in May 2018 to map literature on this topic, determine the extent and range of what has been published, and report the findings. This five-stage framework was conducted by (1) identifying the research question; (2) identifying relevant studies; (3) determining study selection; (4) charting the data; and 5) collating, summarizing, and reporting the results. A narrative approach to analysis was used to synthesize and interpret findings. A search of multidisciplinary healthcare databases resulted in 46 included articles.

Four major themes were identified from the included studies: complexity of care; limited access to care (both through systems and healthcare providers); competence and autonomy; and the potential for relationships between mental health and palliative care.

This review reveals a highly vulnerable population with complex needs that are not reliably being met by the healthcare system and providers. Research in this area must continue to develop using rigorous qualitative and quantitative study designs, and interventions should be developed and tested based on existing knowledge to inform care. The voices of people with SPMI in need of palliative care must be represented in future studies to address gaps. To expand a body of literature addressing mainly individuals, system perspectives and sociocultural analysis can bring much to contextualizing the experience of living with SPMI in the palliative phase of care. Adoption of a palliative approach, which promotes the principles of palliative care across nonspecialized care settings provided by nonspecialist palliative providers, has the potential to increase access to high-quality palliative treatment for people with SPMI.

Controlling hyperactive and mixed delirium is extremely important for the continuation of cancer treatment in palliative care. In general, oral antipsychotics are the first-line drug therapy for delirium; however, oral administration is problematic in patients presenting dysphagia. In this case report, we describe an end-stage cancer patient with aphagia who developed delirium and responded to sublingual antipsychotic asenapine for treating delirium. We also discuss the effectiveness of asenapine in hyperactive delirium as well as its usefulness for treating delirium in palliative care.

A cancer patient with delirium was treated with several oral antipsychotics commonly used to treat delirium but did not respond to any of them. The patient subsequently developed aphagia with progression of the disease. Sublingual asenapine was therefore given to treat delirium.

Asenapine was effective in treating delirium without causing any obvious side effects.

In the present case, asenapine was effective in treating hyperactive delirium that did not respond to commonly used antipsychotics. Because asenapine is a sublingual tablet, it can be used in patients with dysphagia and aphagia. In addition, this drug is anticipated to diminish the burden of end-stage patients from taking oral medications. Furthermore, its management is easier compared with injections, and can therefore also be easily used in homecare patients. Based on these perspectives, asenapine may become an important option for treating delirium in palliative care.

Thiamine deficiency (TD) is recognized in various kinds of disease with associated loss of appetite including cancer; however, TD has not been recognized in the family caregivers of cancer patients to date.

From a series of cancer patient caregivers, we reported an aged family caregiver who developed TD while caring for the cancer patient.

The caregiver was a 90-year-old male. He had been accompanying his wife, who was diagnosed with colon cancer 4 years previously, on hospital visits as the primary caregiver, but because of psychological issues, he was recommended to visit the psycho-oncology department's “caregiver's clinic” for a consultation. Detailed examination revealed that his appetite had been only about 50% of usual from about one year before, and he had lost 12 kg in weight in one year. The diagnosis of TD was supported by his abnormally low serum thiamine level.

This report demonstrates that there is a possibility that care providers could develop TD from the burdens associated with caregiving. TD should be considered whenever there is a loss of appetite lasting for more than 2 weeks, and medical staff should pay careful attention to the physical condition of care providers to prevent complications resulting from TD.