• Fiona Webster, Samantha Bremner, Eric Oosenbrug, Steve Durant, Colin J McCartney, and Joel Katz.
• Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation and Wilson Centre for Education Research, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
• Pain Med. 2017 Aug 1; 18 (8): 146714751467-1475.

BackgroundChronic pain is a significant health problem strongly associated with a wide range of physical and mental health problems, including addiction. The widespread prevalence of pain and the increasing rate of opioid prescriptions have led to a focus on how physicians are educated about chronic pain. This critical scoping review describes the current literature in this important area, identifying gaps and suggesting avenues for further research starting from patients' standpoint.MethodsA search of the ERIC, MEDLINE, and Social Sciences Abstracts databases, as well as 10 journals related to medical education, was conducted to identify studies of the training of medical students, residents, and fellows in chronic noncancer pain.ResultsThe database and hand-searches identified 545 articles; of these, 39 articles met inclusion criteria and underwent full review. Findings were classified into four inter-related themes. We found that managing chronic pain has been described as stressful by trainees, but few studies have investigated implications for their well-being or ability to provide empathetic care. Even fewer studies have investigated how educational strategies impact patient care. We also note that the literature generally focuses on opioids and gives less attention to education in nonpharmacological approaches as well as nonopioid medications.DiscussionThe findings highlight significant discrepancies between the prevalence of chronic pain in society and the low priority assigned to educating future physicians about the complexities of pain and the social context of those afflicted. This suggests the need for better pain education as well as attention to the "hidden curriculum."© 2017 American Academy of Pain Medicine. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com

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