BARRIERS TO CANCER-RELATED PAINMANAGEMENT ASSOCIATED WITHPHYSICIANS

Abstract

Literature review over the last 30 years has identified themajor barriers to cancer management associated with physi-cians: lack of knowledge in pain evaluation, misconceptionsabout opioids, fear of developing opioid side effects, andothers that form the basis for mismanagement of cancer pain.Such barriers are common in all countries, although theyare especially frequent in low / middle income countries wherereligious, ethno-cultural, socio-economic and other factorsinfluence the proper management of pain by physicians.Therefore, in developing countries, including Georgia, ade-quate pain management (regardless of the stage) should begiven priority and effective efforts should be made to identi-fy and overcome barriers associated with physicians. Con-sequently, in order to identify pain management barriers in aparticular country, it is essential to plan a study that willenable to obtain empirical, reliable and robust data to devel-op new approaches for eliminating pain management barri-ers based on solid evidence.