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Keratosis punctata is reported in three patients with some discussion of the literature of the condition. In one patient there was a very late onset at 65 years of age. A detailed investigation of the family over four generations revealed no other affected subjects. The second patient could give no family history of this condition and in the third, keratosis punctata was present in a background of congenital hereditary ectodermal defect. The condition is benign, causing little inconvenience to the patient and treatment is symptomatic and palliative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the research paper "Chloroquine Sulphate in Treatment of Chronic Discoid Lupus Erythematosus," by H.J. Lewis, which was published in a 1955 issue of the "British Medical Journal." It focuses on eighteen cases of lupus erythematosus which were treated with chloroquine sulphate. It is efficient as a form of palliative therapy.

The article outlines some theoretical and practical considerations concerning the use of palliative methods in psychotherapy. The general purpose of palliation is to reduce the severity or otherwise alleviate the client's complaints or symptoms, affording relief but not cure, and thereby facilitating normal reparative processes by providing optimum conditions for cure. Palliative methods are indicated in (a) major crises in adjustment where emotional instability or other distressing symptoms require immediate action to tide the client over his climax of troubles, (b) transient periods of instability where maladjustment is a direct reaction to environmental stress and the client is basically normal and healthy, (c) situations impossible of satisfactory solution, and (d) for the treatment and relief of distressing symptoms which must be attended to before more basic therapy can be effectively attempted.

Palliative treatment is necessary in approximately 67 per cent of patients in whom a diagnosis of carcinoma of the colon or rectum is made. Extending the scope of surgery will not improve this figure. Decreasing the current 80 per cent delay in the diagnosis of the disease should increase the number of patients surviving five years. Before palliative measures are instituted it must be definitely determined that a curative procedure still could not be done. In case of doubt exploratory celiotomy is indicated. When the patient is beyond the curative stage there is still much that can be done if the physician takes an active interest and assumes a positive approach to the problem. The results are often rewarding with survivals beyond 5 years not uncommon. Four things can be accomplished by palliation: relief of pain, relief or prevention of obstruction, prolongation of a useful life, and support of the patient's morale. Before the patient is subjected to possible additional suffering from any palliative measure, the possibility of accomplishing these objectives should be weighed carefully. Palliative exenterations and similar radical palliative procedures have little to offer in prolonging the patient's life and relieving his pain. A "preventive" colostomy should not be established in the expectation that obstruction might develop at some time in the future. A "preventive" colotsomy is an unnecessary colostomy. When properly and sensibly employed, drugs, diet, radiation, fulguration, hypnosis, and surgery have much to offer as palliative measures in the management of carcinoma of the colon and rectum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]