Prevalence of Reluctance to Prescribe Opioids Among Physicians in Oncology Departments: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study From Turkey

Abstract

Cancer-related pain (CrP) is a significant public health problem, and opioids are the mainstay of CrP treatment. Considering the persistent problem of inadequate treatment of cancer pain in Turkey, the study was conducted to determine the prevalence of reluctance to prescribe opioids among physicians in oncology departments. The descriptive cross-sectional study included oncology residents and residents without oncology specialization in oncology departments. One thousand physicians were invited by e-mail to the Google Forms survey platform. Two hundred and seventy-eight physicians completed the survey and were included, of which 50% (n: 139) were female. More than half (n: 166; 59.7%) of them were oncology subspecialists. The prevalence of reluctance to prescribe opioids was calculated to be 38.1% (n: 106). A significant positive association was found between the factor associated with reluctance to prescribe opioids and fear of opioid use disorder (β = 0.964; 95% CI = 0.362–1.566; p = .002). Reluctance to prescribe opioids was inversely related to the oncology subspecialty (β = −0.878; 95% CI = −1.54 to −0.213; p = 0.010) and education about CrP and opioid management (β = −1.707; 95% CI = −2.404 to −1.009; p = 0.01). Reluctance to prescribe opioids appears to be associated with a lack of knowledge and fear of opioid use disorder.

Keywords:

• Cancer-related pain
• opioid
• oncology
• education
• opioid use disorder
• reluctance to opioid prescription

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the participants for their time and Dr. Melih Gaffar Gözükara and Zafer Bütün for helping statics.

Ethics approval

Clinical Research Ethics Committee of University of Health Sciences, Başakşehir Çam and Sakura City Hospital; decision number and date: 20/2021; 20.03.2021.

Authors’ contributions

SAT: design of the work; acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data; drafting and substantial review of the manuscript, review of the manuscript. AYB: design of the work; acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data, review of the manuscript. ŞA: acquisition and interpretation of data; review of the manuscript. All authors approved the final version to be published.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

The data and materials are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and are subject to ethical review.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.