Opioid prescribing attitudes of palliative care physicians versus other specialists: a questionnaire-based survey

While opioid overuse is a public health crisis in the USA, opioid analgesics are used suboptimally in Central and Eastern Europe, causing many pain cases to remain untreated or undertreated.

This questionnaire study aimed to identify the prevalent prescribing patterns and attitudes and the possible internal impediments to optimal opioid use among palliative care physicians and other specialists in Poland.

Tramadol was the most commonly preferred opioid. While palliative care physicians (n=81) used various strong opioids, other physicians (n=87) prescribed mostly buprenorphine, accessible with standard prescription forms. Neither internal prejudices and beliefs nor administrative regulations impede prescribing opioids by palliative care physicians, unlike specialists other than palliative medicine. Special prescription forms for psychoactive medications, fear of drug addiction of their patients and penalties for possible errors on prescriptions affect the latter's optimal prescribing. They also revealed significant gaps in the knowledge of prescribing opioids and would take part in additional training. Palliative care physicians appeared optimally prepared for cancer pain management and report fewer internal barriers than other specialists.

Continuous medical education on cancer pain treatment should be provided to all specialists to ensure optimal opioid pharmacotherapy and avoid overprescribing or underprescribing opioids. Administrative restrictions are the main barrier to optimal pain treatment.