[Use of opiates for chronic pain]

World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended since 1986 simple methods to control pain due to cancer. The use of analgesic medications, appropriate to the severity of pain reported by the patient, is the key point of WHO guidelines. It has been shown that the use of analgesic medication and particularly of morphine to control severe pain is insufficient for a majority of patients worldwide. This communication presents the main results of French national studies among representative samples of cancer patients and physicians (primary care physicians and medical oncologists) faced with cancer pain. These studies confirm that cancer pain is inadequately treated for 51% of patients and identify among French physicians attitudinal barriers to the proper use of morphine. Results are discussed with regard to the national policy against pain now in progress in France.