The key to effective palliative care is to provide a safe place for the individual to express their distress. This involves treating physical symptoms such as pain, nausea and breathlessness so that the patient is able to express any psychological and spiritual distress. These are then addressed in turn, all the while supporting the partner and family. Palliative care teams have become very skillful in prescribing drugs for physical symptoms, and have been instrumental in showing how drugs such as morphine can be used safely while maintaining a patient's full faculties and function. Some charities for the hospice movement offer free, self learning online programmes covering all aspects of palliative care, including the treatment of distress.

Alternative medical treatments such as relaxation therapy, massage, music therapy, and acupuncture can relieve some cancer-related symptoms and other causes of pain. Treatment that integrates complementary therapies with conventional cancer care is integrative oncology.

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