With the goal of improving delirium in cancer patients, quetiapine suppositories were formulated in-hospital and their usefulness was investigated. A retrospective survey of medical records was conducted in 108 patients in whom quetiapine suppositories were used, out of 644 patients admitted to a palliative care ward between April 2011 and October 2014. Patient background information, circumstances of administration, degree of improvement in delirium (evaluation of degree of improvement in hyperactive delirium determined using the Agitation Distress Scale [ADS]), and side effects were investigated. In the overall group, including the quetiapine suppository group and the quetiapine suppository combined with another drug group, a significant decrease in ADS value was confirmed after administration of the suppository (p<0.0001), suggesting that this treatment contributed to improvement in delirium. The side effects were similar to those caused by the oral administration of quetiapine, and issues due to the formulation as a suppository were not observed. In conclusion, it was determined that quetiapine suppositories can be used simply and safely, and it is thought that quetiapine suppositories are useful for delirium in cancer patients.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to clarify the factors contributing to the evaluation of perceived care in inpatient palliative care services from the aspect of informal caregiver after their loss of the patient to cancer. Method: A questionnaire was mailed to 9,684 bereaved subjects who had lost family members at one of 103 palliative care units in Japan to evaluate their sociodemographic characteristics and the evaluation of perceived care. An institution survey was performed to collect organization-related variables. The evaluation of perceived care was rated by the Care Evalutaion Scale (CES), the Good Death Inventory (GDI) and single item of overall satisfation. Result: A total of 5,810 responses were analyzed (response rate＝60％). Uni-variate and multivariate analysis was performed to clarify the determinants of each scale. Significant determinants of the score in the evaluation of care identified were: the rate of private room (100％), independent facility, palliative care physician being night-time duty, the number of nurses at night (＞0.1 per bed), sending a letter to every bereaved family, holding a memorial services for every bereaved family and having a religious background. Conclusion: In conclusion, the evaluation of palliative care from the aspect of informal caregiver was influenced by various organization-related variables.