These symptoms are characterized by an important state of malnutrition due to a significant decrease in food intake.
When a patient is unable to feed and hydrate as it did before the illness is generated, both he and his family in a state of distress and discomfort.
In our culture, lack of appetite is associated with a worsening of the disease, it often requires the patient to eat even though for him entails great effort and a stressful situation.
A common idea is that the family thinks that does not feed properly if the patient does not have the strength to fight the disease. However, this is not true. The terminally ill patient does not need as much food as a healthy person, as both their business and their needs have been reduced considerably.
The purpose of treatment of this symptom is twofold, firstly it is intended that the patient begins to eat and which to him is a pleasurable act and the other to diminish the anguish that occurs in the family's lack of appetite.
Factors contributing to decreased appetite in the sick are varied. The most common are:
* Social and psychological factors:
or Soledad.
or unwelcoming environment.
or anxiety.
or depression.
* Factors food:
or unappetizing food.
or meal.
* Digestive factors:
or dryness of the mouth.
or alteration of taste.
or mucositis (inflammation of the lining of the mouth).
or dysphagia (difficulty swallowing).
or constipation.
or nausea and / or vomiting.
or early satiety, and so on.
* Factors secondary to cancer:
or pain.
or impaired consciousness.
or hypercalcemia (increased blood calcium, etc.).
Anorexia is a symptom that is treatable but the results depend on the cause that produces it.
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