Palliative Medicine Pocketbook

A very concise booklet for junior doctors, specialists and general practitioners containing brief, dot-point suggestions for symptom relief in patients with palliative illnesses. Originally based on the 2014 Isle of Wight Symptom Relief Guidelines by Dr Graham Grove and Dr Paul Howard, this 2025 fourth edition has been adapted and updated for the Australian context.

It contains details about the following:

• Medications useful in the last few hours of life
• Using continuous subcutaneous infusions
• Using opioids and treating pain
• Treating respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological, dermatological and systemic symptoms in palliative patients
• Treating acute complications of cancer
• Using various specialist palliative care medications including lidocaine, ketamine, clonidine, methadone, and phenobarbitone