The use of proportional palliative sedation for the relief of refractory symptoms: an international multi-centre study
An EU Horizon2020 Research Project

About the project
A €4 million project to investigate how best to help patients with distressing symptoms near the end of life will focus on the clinical, ethical, legal and moral aspects of providing sedation to dying patients across Europe.
“This research will focus on improved ways of assessing and managing refractory symptoms and the adequate use of palliative sedation, taking into account differences across Europe in both clinical and ethical aspects.”
Dr. Jeroen Hasselaar
Associate Professor Jeroen Hasselaar
Project Co-ordinator
Register for our free Massive, Open, Online Course today!
Dying Well: The Role of Palliative Care and Sedation in End of Life Care.
A free, 3 week, online course, exploring how to help people experience better deaths starting on the 16th October 2023.

Watch our welcome trailer to the course.
An introduction to the project
Associate Professor Jeroen Hasselaar, the project co-ordinator, introduces the project and its aims.
The role of Palliative Sedation in palliative care
Released in September 2023, this free eBook covers the topic of palliative sedation and related subjects like definitions, ethics and practice in palliative sedation as well as the recently published EAPC framework on palliative sedation.
Our Goals:
Evidence
To evidence and investigate the practice of proportional palliative sedation
Investigate
To investigate the use of moral case deliberation for palliative sedation
Update
To revise the 2009 EAPC recommended framework for palliative sedation
Understand
To increase public and professional understanding of palliative sedation
Palliative sedation at the end of life
An infographic created by the ATLANTES research team, University of Navarra, graphically demonstrating the terminologies and potential pathways incorporated into the current delivery of palliative sedation.
Behind the Scenes
An introduction to some of the research work being conducted within our Work Packages.
More details about the research being undertaken by each of the work packages can be found under the menu ‘Work Packages’.
Recent Activity
Project members held a one-day consortium meeting in the heart of Amsterdam on the 7th October 2022.
The meeting gave project members the opportunity to meet in person for the first time in years, presenting an excellent opportunity to reflect on the positive progress that each Work Package team has made. A consensus workshop was also made possible, along with a session where three consortium members were asked to present a challenging clinical case on palliative sedation.

Resources
Publications and other documents relating to the project can be found below.
Recent Publications
How to measure the effects and potential adverse events of palliative sedation? An integrative review
DOI: 10.1177/0269216320974264
Clinical Aspects of Palliative Sedation in Prospective Studies. A Systematic Review
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.09.022
Recent Presentations
The following presentations were given during a Palliative Sedation webinar, held on the 3rd June 2021.
Palliative sedation: Introduction