| Drugs and doses used† | Intensified alleviation of pain and other symptoms, No. (%) n = 1249 | Life-ending act without explicit patient request, No. (%) n = 66 | Euthanasia or assisted suicide, No. (%) n = 142 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Drugs | n = 1199 | n = 65 | n = 139 |
| Opioids | 1139 (95.0) | 61 (93.8) | 56 (40.3) |
| As the only drug | 703 (58.6) | 29 (44.6) | 22 (15.8) |
| With benzodiazepines | 284 (23.7) | 17 (26.2) | 20 (14.4) |
| With drugs other than benzodiazepines | 78 (6.5) | 8 (12.3) | 3 (2.1) |
| With benzodiazepines and other drugs | 74 (6.2) | 7 (10.8) | 11 (7.9) |
| No opioids | 60 (5.0) | 4 (6.1) | 83 (59.7) |
| χ2 p value | 0.2 | < 0.001 | |
| Reported OME opioid doses used in last 24h‡, mg | n = 821 | n = 37 | n = 44 |
| 1–119 | 307 (37.4) | 14 (37.8) | 6 (13.6) |
| 120–239 | 267 (32.5) | 10 (27.0) | 10 (22.7) |
| 240–479 | 179 (21.8) | 10 (27.0) | 21 (47.7) |
| ≥ 480 | 68 (8.3) | 3 (8.1) | 7 (15.9) |
| χ2 p value | 0.9 | 0.04 |
Note: OME = oral morphine equivalent. *Administration of drugs for the treatment and management of pain or other symptoms, taking into account a potential life-shortening effect. †Cases with missing values were excluded from the analysis. ‡Conversion rates were obtained from handbooks and review publications with equianalgesic tables.14–17