The Manual of Palliative Care was particularly well accepted by health professionals, and the rapid disappearance of the available copies of the first edition clearly shows the potential interest for this area of health care, which was the main motivation for the preparation of this second revised and expanded edition.

The same desire led us to make available a set of understandable, updated and easily accessed information items that are based on selected research and the clinical experience and personal reflections of the authors, useful for different health professionals who in one way or another are involved in the practice or teaching of palliative care.

We have maintained the structure of the different chapters which usually start from a clinical case and develop aspects related to the definition, characterisation and forms of intervention on the problems we frequently face in palliative care, concluding with key points to bear in mind and questions that set out knowledge that has the potential to be used in training.

All of the chapters have been updated to some extent, some were totally reformulated, and new chapters have been introduced, namely: prognosis in palliative care, palliative care in people with advanced dementia, urgencies in palliative care, desire to bring forward death and suicide, process of mourning, child mourning, spirituality and process of ethical deliberation.

We must express our profound thanks and respect to all the authors for the fact that they once more qualitatively and generously shared their wisdom, and state what a privilege it has been for us to work with them on another project.

A word of renewed debt is due to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation for its sustaining support for several different initiatives in the field of palliative care of which this is only a small part.

We reiterate our esteem and recognition to the governing bodies of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (FMUL) for their great stimulus and support in providing the conditions for research, but also, and in an innovative manner here, for undergraduate and post-graduate training in the area over the last ten years.

The book is available at the FMUL Nucleus of Palliative Care/Bioethics Centre (Level 5, elevator 11) and in the AIDFM (Level 01)

Nucleus of Palliative Care /Bioethics Centre of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon
cbioetica@fm.ul.pt