Kanser Hastalarının Opioid Analjezik Kullanımına İlişkin Görüşlerinin Değerlendirilmesi ve Hasta Eğitiminde Klinik Eczacının Rolü

Abstract

Pain is a common syndrome among cancer patients that has a negative impact on the physiological functions, psychological well-being, quality of life of patients, and that also requires a good management. Patients and their relatives, healthcare providers, and healthcare system are among factors that constitute an impediment to good pain management in cancer pain management. The objectives of this study are; an assessment of patients’ behaviours and believes about opioid analgesics which play a significant role in pain management of cancer patients, elimination of patient-related factors in the use of opioid analgesics through education provided by a clinical pharmacist, and improvement of patients’ adherence to opioid analgesics. This study was carried out at the Hacettepe University Oncology Hospital Department of Algology between September 2018 and May 2019. The study included 60 patients diagnosed with cancer and use opioid analgesics, the patients were educated on opioid analgesics by a clinical pharmacist, and 38 patients were re-evaluated one month after the education. It has been observed that there is a statistically-insignificant increase in patients’ neccesity for opioids, and a statistically-significant decrease in patients’ concerns about opioid analgesics after the provision of education. An involvement of a clinical pharmacist indicates an increase in patients’ adherence as well as an increase in patients’ motivation (p>0.05) and knowledge (p<0,05) on pain medication. The post-education evaluation shows a substantial decrease in pain scores of the patients. As a result, involvement of a clinical pharmacist must be taken into consideration in order to improve pain management through provision of educational interventions and elimination of drug-related problems, therefore a clinical pharmacist should be included in a multidisciplinary healtcare team in the pain management.