SENSES AND MEANINGS OF TEAS AND OTHER PREPARATIONS WITH MEDICINAL PLANTS FOR ADVANCED CANCER PATIENTS IN PALLIATIVE CARE

Abstract

In advanced cancer, there is a gradual change in treatment with an emphasis on palliative care, in order to relieve symptoms and improve quality of life. The search for alternative patients, which falls between the consumption of medicinal plants in the form of teas and other preparations, is a feature of choice for many of these patients. We aimed to interpret the meanings assigned to tea and medicinal plants from the viewpoint of palliative care inpatients in a referral national cancer hospital. The interpretative analysis, derived from interviews with six women, includes their narratives and direct ethnographic observations, following the methodology of social sciences, considering the subjectivity of advanced cancer patients and the new meanings given to these plants during their struggle against the disease. We built five categories of analysis: 1) idealization built in the search to reverse cancer; 2) clandestine use of medicinal plants; 3) medicinal plants as an expression of family or affective ties; 4) belief that a natural product is always beneficial; e 5) complementarity between medicine and food. The results reveal a strong influence of socio-cultural context on the use of health practices associated with conventional cancer treatments, which reaffirms the need for greater integration between technical, scientific and popular knowledge. Since palliative care are beyond the traditional treatments, we suggest better understanding of the needs and expectations of patients, giving them freedom to express a desire to try new feeding practices and consumption of medicinal plants that could somehow benefit them, even if only from the psycho-social point of view.

Key words: Teas. Medicinal Plants. Advanced Câncer. Palliative Care. Quality of Life.