Pharmacological research : the official journal of the Italian Pharmacological Society
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A retrospective survey of the opioid prescriptions issued for cancer outpatients (2125) of the Treviso district (Veneto Region, northern Italy) during the time period 1993-2000 was carried out with the specific aims to establish the rate of opioid prescription and verify whether terminally ill outpatients (1697) who had died by the end of December 2000 received adequate opioid prescription, as compared with the Defined Daily Doses (DDDs) of opioids suggested by the World Health Organization (WHO) for a standard population. For both women and men, the maximum rate of opioid prescription was at the age of beyond 90 years. Men were more prescribed than women between 60 and 79 years of age, whereas women were more prescribed than men beyond 90 years. ⋯ In conclusion, present data show that the vast majority of terminally ill cancer outpatients in the Treviso district received inadequate opioid prescriptions in relation to either drug daily dosage or therapy duration. Misconceptions of general practitioners of the district about opioids could contribute to the inappropriate use of these analgesics in cancer pain management. As far as we know, the ATC/DDD methodology for the opioid prescription analysis used in this survey has not been applied before.