Beyond the living will.

Sixty-three residents of a retirement community with living wills were studied to see if more specific planning for, and thus control over, their dying process would decrease their anxiety about death. The experimental group received intervention in the form of counseling and filling out a questionnaire regarding specific treatments (e.g., CPR, feeding tubes), proxy decision making, and other related questions. Results show that the mean death anxiety score for the experimental group decreased, whereas the control group's mean score did not change significantly.