Canadian family physician Médecin de famille canadien
-
To measure physicians' experiences with opioid-related adverse events and their perceived level of confidence in their opioid prescribing skills and practices. ⋯ Most physicians have encountered opioid-related adverse events. Comprehensive strategies are required to promote safe prescribing of opioids, including guidelines and comprehensive office-system materials.
-
To describe the characteristics of patients with chronic noncancer pain (CNCP) prescribed opioids by community physicians and referred to a tertiary pain clinic. ⋯ Our results indicate that male, Canadian-born CNCP patients presenting with psychological morbidity or comorbidity and reporting higher pain severity ratings were more likely to receive opioids. Additionally, many CNCP patients referred to our tertiary care pain clinic were receiving opioids in excess of a 200-mg/d MED. More studies are needed to determine which factors lead to high-dose opioid prescribing in a subset of this CNCP population.
-
Referring patients with chronic noncancer pain to pain clinics: survey of Ontario family physicians.
To examine the factors associated with FPs' referrals of patients with chronic noncancer pain to a tertiary care pain clinic. ⋯ Although the results of our survey of FPs identify certain barriers to and reasons for referring patients to pain clinics, the results cannot be generalized owing to the small sample of FPs in our study. Larger studies of randomly selected FPs, who might or might not refer patients to pain clinics, are needed to provide a better understanding of chronic noncancer pain management needs at the primary care level.