Treatment of cancer pain in Norway. A questionnaire study

A questionnaire study was performed in order to clarify knowledge and practice of cancer pain treatment in Norway: a 10% random sample of Norwegian physicians received a questionnaire. Of 800 correctly addressed questionnaires, 549 were returned and 306 were analyzed after exclusion of those doctors who never treated cancer patients. Their knowledge of the principles and methods of cancer pain treatment were evaluated with 8 multiple-choice and 13 open questions. Their ability to apply their knowledge in practice was evaluated by analyzing their suggested treatment of 3 illustrative case histories. The results show that only 25% of Norwegian physicians treating cancer patients appear to have knowledge of the principles of the World Health Organization analgesic ladder strategy. However, the majority (86%) of the physicians were prepared to prescribe strong opioid analgesics, but in the illustrative cases where strong opioids were appropriate, 44% prescribed too small doses and often preferred neuroleptic drugs instead of increasing the analgesic to a sufficiently large dose. Patients needing step two on the analgesic ladder, in Norway often (49%) are treated with a standard combination of paracetamol and codeine. However, when a strong opioid is required, 50% of Norwegian physicians forget to continue the paracetamol or NSAID component. Two hundred seventy-four (97%) of the physicians said they experienced problems when treating cancer pain, ranging from inefficient pain relief (52%) to side effects of opioid analgesics (32%), most often sedation, in combination with nausea and constipation. Only 13% of the physicians had a correct understanding of opioid drug dependence. As many as 72% of Norwegian physicians thought their education in cancer pain treatment was insufficient.