Barriers to Effective Pain Management among Patients with Cancer

Abstract

Background: Pain is one of the most common symptoms in patients with cancer. The common causes of acute cancer pain involve cancer itself or therapeutic modalities related to cancer include chemotherapy, radiation, targeted therapy, surgery, and diagnostic procedures; it requires effective pain management, and the barriers to cancer pain management are prevalent among patients with cancer around the world, this may hinder patients with cancer from receiving effective pain management.

Study Objective: The current study aim to determine the attitudinal patient-related barrier.

Methods: Across the sectional study, the nonprobability (heterogeneous purposive sample) of (130) patients diagnosed with cancer are included in the present study. The study instrument includes four parts: patient’s demographic and clinical data and pain management barriers by using the  Barriers Questionnaire II (BQ II).

Outcomes: The study results indicate that there is a significant effect of the attitudinal patient-related barriers on effective pain management among patients with cancer include patients’ concern about addiction and the harmful effects of pain treatment.

Conclusion: The main patient-related barriers that negatively affect effective pain management included patients’ concern about addiction and the harmful effects of pain treatment.

Recommends: designing interventional and educational programs to handle the barriers that negatively affect pain management to improve the quality of pain management for patients with cancer.