ReviewCanadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien2012
Controlling pain and reducing misuse of opioids: ethical considerations.
Review in Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Ethical Challenges of Acute Pain Management: A Scoping Review.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Management of Chronic Pain in Elderly Patients: The Central Role of Nurses in Multidisciplinary Care.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Family Physician Perceptions of Their Role in Managing the Opioid Crisis.Annals of family medicine · 2019Article
- Opioid misuse in gastroenterology and non-opioid management of abdominal pain.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2018Review
- Concomitant use of opioid medications with triptans or serotonergic antidepressants in US office-based physician visits.Drug, healthcare and patient safety · 2018Article
- Patient therapeutic education: placing the patient at the centre of the WHO analgesic ladder.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2014Article
- Searching for hope.Canadian family physician Medecin de famille canadien · 2012Article
- Opioids in Cancer Pain Management: A Double-Edged Sword of Relief and Risk.Nigerian medical journal : journal of the Nigeria Medical AssociationReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo help family physicians achieve an ethical balance in their opioid prescribing practices. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE: MEDLINE was searched for English-language articles published between 1985 and 2011. Most available evidence was level III. MAIN MESSAGE: It is essential to follow practice guidelines when prescribing opioids, except when another course of action is demonstrably justified. In addition, when considering the appropriateness of an opioid prescription, with its many ethical implications, the decision can be usefully guided by the application of the ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice. As well, it is essential to keep current about legal and regulatory changes and provincial electronic registries of opioid prescriptions.
conclusionPhysicians need to ensure that their patients' pain is properly assessed and managed. Reaching optimal pain control might necessitate prescribing opioids. But the obligation to provide pain relief needs to be balanced with an equally important responsibility not to expose patients to risk of addiction and not to create opportunities for drug diversion, trafficking, and the addiction of others. Basic ethical principles can provide a framework to help physicians make ethically appropriate decisions about opioid prescribing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
22611604PMC3325448What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.