Are patients qualified to determine whether or not opioids help in treating their pain? Pain Medicine Advance Access published a study that was conducted at the Back and Pain Center, University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, MI. The Back and Pain Center is an outpatient tertiary care pain clinic where patients are evaluated for a range of chronic pain conditions.
Study Asks Patients to Describe Pain
Patients were asked about key clinical factors including pain, functioning, mood, and opioid use history. The researchers wanted to evaluate patients’ beliefs about opioids. Their goal was to find out, from the perspective of patients, whether the difficulties associated with opioids (such as anxiety and depression) outweighed its benefit (that is, pain relief).