PROFESSIONAL ISSUES

Reluctant to prescribe

Quick View. Aug. 6, 2007.

Pain specialists' message that opioids are not just for patients with cancer is not quite getting through to physicians in training.

Across the board, residents were much more reluctant to prescribe opioids for noncancer patients, said a recent survey of 72 residents. That could be due to poor training, inexperience or fear of legal or regulatory scrutiny, study authors said. Researchers asked residents to react to the statements on a scale of zero ("strongly disagree") to 10 ("strongly agree"). The figures represent an average of the students' responses.

This information and the accompanying full-text visual aids were drawn from the following source:

"Medical residents' beliefs and concerns about using opioids to treat chronic cancer and noncancer pain: A pilot study," Journal of Rehabilitation Research & Development, Vol. 44, No. 2.

[...]

Quick Views provide a visual glimpse into current events in medicine.

Full text of AMNews content, including all Quick View tables and charts, is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.

Access details

Join the AMA