Abstract
Barriers to optimal cancer pain management exist among clinicians and patients and within the healthcare system. This article examines patient barriers to effective management of cancer pain. Unrelieved pain remains a major problem for patients with cancer and other diseases. Recommendations and guidelines for effective cancer pain management are widely available; however, patients continue to hold misconceptions about the use and effects of drugs commonly used to manage cancer pain. Although interventions designed to raise the awareness of patients seem to help in controlled research studies, much still needs to be done to address this problem. Researchers have advocated that control of cancer pain can be improved through patient education by helping patients have more control over their pain and by improving the patients' adherence to the scheduling of pain medications. Limited research efforts have been directed toward developing or evaluating the effectiveness of pain education programs that focus on patient-related barriers to pain management for patients with cancer.