This may surprise many people. An article in JAMA looks at the effect of informational and emotional-support meetings between palliative-care specialists and  families of critically ill patients.

The authors concluded:

“Among families of patients with chronic critical illness, the use of palliative care-led informational and emotional support meetings compared with usual care did not reduce anxiety or depression symptoms and may have increased post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. These findings do not support routine or mandatory palliative care-led discussion of goals of care for all families of patients with chronic critical illness.”

To read the JAMA article, please hit this link.