ABSTRACT
Many studies have shown that physicians are often reluctant to prescribe adequate levels of analgesics unless it is anticipated that the patient has 6months or less to live (1,11-13). However most physicians are often unable to correctly predict prognosis. A review of five studies involving a total of 468 patients who were considered to have less than 6months to live demonstrated that physicians correctly predicted prognosis about half of the time with a range of 22-70% (14,15). In these studies, the actual median survival was 3.5weeks (range 25weeks) as compared to the estimated median survival of 6weeks (4.5-8weeks) by the physician.
