What do medical students know about chronic pain and its management?

A questionnaire on chronic pain management was completed by 114 third year, and 80 fifth (final) year medical students. The results demonstrated a significant improvement in most facets of chronic pain knowledge and management by the end of the medical course. A postal survey was undertaken of all pain clinics in Northern Ireland to identify current activity, as these figures are not collected in Korner returns. Despite the improvement in knowledge by final year, there were still many students who did not know what type of problem to refer to a pain clinic (30%), who ran the clinics (> 40%), or the types of treatment commonly employed. More formal education is required on this subject, at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.