Opioid-taking self-efficacy as influencing emotional status in patients with cancer pain

The purpose of this study was to evaluate how much of the variance in emotional status amongst Taiwanese cancer patients could be accounted for by opioid-taking self-efficacy.

This cross-sectional study included 109 cancer patients who had taken prescribed opioid analgesics for cancer related pain in the past week and completed the Opioid-Taking Self-Efficacy Scale-CA (OTSES-CA) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

There was a significant and negative correlation between scores on anxiety and self-efficacy total scale (r = -0.29, p < 0.01), self-efficacy communication subscale (r = -0.37, p < 0.01), self-efficacy acquiring help subscale (r = -0.22, p < 0.05) and self-efficacy managing treatment related concerns subscale (r = -0.32, p < 0.01). However, the correlation between scores on depression and the self-efficacy total scale was not significant (r = -0.18, p > 0.05); only the self-efficacy communication subscale was significantly and negatively associated with depression (r = -0.27, p < 0.01). The opioid-taking self-efficacy total scale accounted for 8% of predicting the patients' anxiety. Opioid-taking self-efficacy subscales accounted for 20% (R² = 0.20, p = 0.000) of the variance in predicting anxiety and 10% (R² = 0.10, p = 0.02) of the variance in predicting depression.

This study highlights the potential importance of a patient's opioid-taking self-efficacy beliefs in their emotional status, which is relevant to cancer pain.