Is opiate compliance a problem in cancer pain? A survey of health-care professionals' views.

This article reports on a questionnaire survey, which was conducted among health-care professionals to investigate their experience of opiate compliance in terminally ill patients with cancer pain. There were 93 respondents, ranging from hospital consultants to junior doctors and specialist nurses to staff nurses. Sixty-six respondents (71%) indicated that non-compliance was a problem in pain control. Non-compliance was considered a problem in more than 15% of patients for 92 respondents. Non-compliance was reported for all the routes and types of strong opiates. Short-acting morphine administered every 4-6 hours was reported as the drug most likely not to be taken (n=52, 55.9%), whereas transdermal opiates were the most common second-line choice for non-compliant patients (n=65, 70%). Participants indicated that the reasons for non-compliance varied and included gastrointestinal and CNS side effects, fear of addiction and lack of help with drug.