Integrative approach to pain and other symptoms

Palliative care and integrative medicine (IM) share many of the same goals of alleviating suffering, restoring wholeness, enhancing resiliency in the face of health challenges, and optimizing opportunities for personal growth and healing. Integrative approaches often contribute a sense of peace and wholeness that cannot be achieved with pharmacologic means alone. A range of integrative modalities is discussed in this chapter, which fit well with paediatric palliative care medicine in developed countries, as a complement to conventional medical efforts to cure disease or thwart its progression and reduce suffering. They also play an important role in many of the countries in the world, where less access to conventional Western medical care is available.