Moderate to Severe Cancer Pain: Are We Taking Serious Action? The Opioid Prescribing Scenario in Portugal

Abstract

N/A.

Managing Pain in People with Cancer—a Systematic Review of the Attitudes and Knowledge of Professionals, Patients, Caregivers and Public

“…These findings are consistent with those of recent studies and systematic reviews [12,13,20,26,37,79,80,96]. Thus, it can be argued that due to these negative attitudes and lack of knowledge towards CPM, the management of cancer pain remains a major problem worldwide, especially in countries within Europe, Africa and Asia [13,26,52,75,76,81,92]. These could be due to lack of education and training about CPM among professionals and lack of general awareness and adequate level of knowledge about CPM among patients, caregivers and the public, as these were stated in all of the included studies.…”

Letter to the Editor: The Opioid Prescribing Scenario in Portugal from a Primary Care Perspective.

“…Lemos com grande interesse as respostas ao nosso artigo do Prof. Doutor Luiz Santiago e do Prof. Doutor José Ponte. 1,2 Concordamos com ambos que é possível ir mais longe no que toca à Prova Nacional de Seriação (PNS), nomeadamente através do complemento da prova teórica com uma prova prática de avaliação de atitudes e aptidões práticas. Temos a perfeita noção que é assim que é feita a avaliação no período de transição da formação pré-graduada para a formação pós-graduada em países na vanguarda da avaliação de estudantes de medicina e de médicos como os Estados Unidos, 3 e está previsto ser introduzida uma avaliação semelhante no Reino Unido.…”

“…Dear Editor, I am writing to you after reading the article on moderate to intense cancer pain and the scenario of opioid consumption in Portugal, recently published in Acta Médica Portuguesa. 1 The issue is relevant since the United Nations state that certain drugs are "indispensable for pain and suffering relief" and that their availability "must be" ensured. However, between 2011 and 2013, more than 5 billion people had little or no access to essential analgesics.…”

“…Dear Editor, We read with great interest, in a previous issue of this journal, one article regarding opioid prescription in patients with cancer-related pain in Portugal. 1 In this article, the authors defend that opioids are the pillar for managing cancer-related pain. However, since Portugal has one of the lowest opioid-prescribing rates in Western Europe, we completely agree with the existence of 'morphine-phobia' in the country.…”

Some Particularities About the Use of Opioids in Cancer-Related Pain

“…1 In Portugal, however, morphine is poorly prescribed: 15 times less than fentanyl and 1.5 times less than hydromorphone. 4 I hope the state of the art will change soon. Perhaps, then, medical students and young interns do not find that the risks of opioids outweigh the clinical benefit.…”