Opioids for managing patients with chronic pain: community pharmacists' perspectives and concerns

Previous studies of pharmacists have suggested poor availability of opioids and apprehension about dispensing these drugs. This pilot study surveyed 52 randomly selected New Jersey community pharmacists (response rate = 69%). Reluctance to stock opioids was attributed to concerns about robbery by 14% and to concerns about federal or state investigation by 17%. No correlation was found between respondents who had a high degree of concern about robbery and those who had incurred previous robbery. Of the 20% of respondents who had incurred a prior federal or state investigation, none expressed more than minimal concern about opioid regulatory issues. Pharmacist confidence in the acceptability of opioids for chronic pain was 75% for malignant pain in patients with no history of opioid abuse and declined to 3% for nonmalignant pain in patients with a history of opioid abuse.