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Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To assess the final year medical students9 knowledge, beliefs, and attitude toward cancer pain, and the need for a formal pain curriculum in medical schools. METHODS: An epidemiological study was conducted from May 2008 to October 2009 at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to assess the students9 knowledge and attitude toward cancer pain management. A survey in the form of self-conducted questionnaire was distributed among them. RESULTS: Response rate was 55% (N=325). Fifty-four percent of the respondents believed that <40% of cancer patients suffered from pain. Forty-six percent of them considered cancer pain as untreatable, while 41.6% considered pain as a minor problem, and 58.6% considered the risk of addiction is high with legitimate opioids9 prescription. There are 23.1% of students believed that patients are poor judges of their pain, 68% of them limited opioids prescription to patients with poor prognosis, and 77.1% believed that drug tolerance or psychological dependence, rather than advanced stages9 cancer is the cause of increasing analgesic doses. The students9 knowledge on the causes of cancer pain, pain clinic rule, and pain inclusion in the medical curriculum was poor. The correlation between personal life experience and respondents9 attitude toward cancer pain management did not reveal any statistical significant. CONCLUSIONS: The study revealed poor knowledge and negative attitude of medical students9 toward cancer pain. A structured teaching pain program is needed to improve the knowledge and attitude of future doctors toward pain.

Article Type

Research Article

First Page

628

Last Page

632

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