Barriers and adherence to pain management in advanced cancer patients.

AIM To assess patients' barriers to pain management and analgesic medication adherence in advanced cancer patients METHODS: Prospective cross-sectional study in advanced cancer patients receiving chronic opioid therapy. Age, gender, cancer diagnosis, Karnofsky level, and educational status were recorded. collected. These included age, gender, cancer diagnosis, Karnofsky level, and educational status. The Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS), the Memorial Delirium Assessment Scale (MDAS), the Barriers Questionnaire II (BQ-II), medication Adherence Rating Scale (MARS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were measured. RESULTS One-hundred-thirteen patients were analyzed. The mean age was 68 (± 13) years and 59 (52%) were males. The mean Karnofsky status was 51.4 (SD 11.5). The mean value of BQ-II items was 1.77 (SD 0.7). BQ-II was independently related with HADS-D (p=0.033), and with total HADS (p=0.049). Negative side-effects and attitudes to psychotropic medication globally prevailed among MARS items. These items were independently associated with gender (P=0.030), pain (; p=0.003), and depression (p= 0.047). CONCLUSION Barriers to pain management were mild. Psychological factors such as depression were the main factor associated with barriers. Poor adherence to analgesic medication was mostly manifested as negative side-effects and attitudes to psychotropic medication, was more frequent observed in females and was associated with ESAS items pain and depression.