International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care list of essential medicines for palliative care.

background The World Health Organization (WHO) Cancer Control Program requestedthe support from the International Association for Hospice andPalliative Care (IAHPC) to develop a list of essential medicinesfor palliative care. The current WHO Model List of EssentialMedicines has a section called Palliative Care, which does notlist any medications, but the following statement:

Section 8.4—Medicinesused in palliative care The WHO Expert Committee on the Selectionand Use of Essential Medicines recommended that all the drugsmentioned in the WHO publication Cancer Pain Relief: with aGuide to Opioid Availability, second edition, be consideredessential. The drugs are included in the relevant sections ofthe Model List, according to their therapeutic use, e.g. analgesics.

The request from WHO was to prepare a list based on the recommendationfrom palliative care experts, taking in consideration two criteria:efficacy and safety. The WHO will be