Symptom management at the end of life

The drug class of choice for breathlessness

The drug class of choice for the management of breathlessness in end-of-life care is opiates. The question is put with four other classes beside it, and none of them is the answer: not anticholinergics, not antipsychotics, not benzodiazepines, not corticosteroids.

Opiates help to reduce the sense of air hunger in patients with dyspnea. The use of opiates for palliative therapy in advanced pulmonary disease is supported by clinical guidelines from the American Thoracic Society.