PALLIATIVE CARE ELDERLY PATIENTS WITH SLEEPING DISORDERS ARE POORLY TREATED

Background: Sleep disorders are frequent in patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative-care, especially in elderly patients (1). Sleep disorders during palliative-care may be related with anxiety, opioids related central-sleep apnoea or corticoids therapy between others (2). Our aim was to quantify the effectiveness of hypnotic medication in the sleep quality in advanced cancer receiving palliative-care elderly patients. Material and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in elderly patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative-care exploring their sleep quantity and quality (approved by Local Ethical Committee). Patients who were in our palliative care program and didn´t have any exclusion criteria: Age below 60 years, with ability to communicate effectively, and without cognitive failure and/or delirium, and/or psychotic illness. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) questionnaire and EVA scales were used to measured sleep quality and pain and anxiety levels. Patient under corticoids treatment were compared with other non-sleep disorders risky treatment. Results are expressed as mean ± sem. and were compared by Student t test and ANOVA test followed by Bonferroni post-test. Results: Patients, N=138, 63.8% male, aged 70.9±1.1 years old with diagnostic of 28.3% gastro-intestinal, 15.9% mama/gynaecological , 13% pulmonary, 12.3% urinary, 6.5% liver, 4.3% central nervous system, 1.4% pancreatic, and 18.1% others types of terminal cancer were enrolled. Patients were treated with no oncologic treatment (78.3%), chemotherapy (12.3%), radiotherapy (5.1%), hormone therapy (3.6%), or immunotherapy (0.7%). 54.3% were treated with corticoids vs. 20.3% under other sleep disorders risky treatment and 25.4% with no treatment. The sleep disturbances prevalence were 81.2% in the total population and 90.4% in patients treated with corticoids (p