Commentary: Mindfulness-based interventions for patients receiving palliative care

Commentary to: Mindfulness-based interventions for pain, anxiety, depression, and quality of life in patients receiving palliative care: a meta-analysis (Saragih et al., 2026).Palliative care plays a crucial role in the end-of-life phase, the timeline of which varies widely between individuals.Although the benefits of palliative care are well documented, access to such care remains unequal in many places, such as Sweden.Historically and currently, the development of palliative care has been characterised by disparities and a reliance on locally driven efforts led by dedicated individuals, highlighting the need for more equitable and systematic development of palliative care services (Öhlén et al., 2025).High-quality palliative care is often necessary to optimise symptom management and improve patients' quality of life, yet many symptom relief strategies currently in use are not consistently supported by robust evidence.This lack of evidence highlights the need for further research to identify which interventions should be offered to this patient group.This need is particularly evident in relation to nursing interventions, which can be challenging to evaluate using traditional research methodologies.Nevertheless, it remains essential to identify interventions that provide clear benefits, carry minimal risk of harm and do not delay the use of effective established treatments (Nilsson et al., 2020, Nilsson et al., 2024).This systematic review (Saragih et al., 2026) highlights an important area within palliative care and provides evidence to support nursing activities that have hitherto been occasionally grounded in evidence-based practice.The results make an important contribution to clinical practice in palliative care, a field characterised by complex and multidimensional patient needs.Although medical treatment remains a fundamental component of palliative care, it is insufficient on its own.Equally important is empathic and emotionally responsive care grounded in compassion,