ArticleAddiction science & clinical practice2025
Medication misuse and illicit substance use among palliative care patients in German palliative care units- an evaluation from the perspective of palliative care providers.
Article in Addiction science & clinical practice, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Is routine screening for substance use disorders useful in palliative care? Results of a prospective observational study.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2026Observational
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPalliative care focuses on controlling symptoms and improving the patient's quality of life. To achieve this, medications with addictive potential are often used. There have been various case reports of substance misuse in palliative care. This study aims to explore how practitioners perceive the issue and management of substance misuse in palliative care patients. MATERIALS AND
methodsFollowing an extensive literature review, a 23-question questionnaire was developed to assess attitudes and practices related to substance misuse in palliative care and distributed to all German palliative care units (PCUs) listed on the website of the German Society for Palliative Medicine (n = 334).
resultsA total of 116 responses from PCUs (34.7%) were included in the analysis. Of these, 49.1% estimated that approximately 1-5% of their patients suffer from medication-related substance misuse. Most respondents (72.4%) assumed that 1-5% of their patients use illicit substances. In addition, 62.9% of the PCUs do not screen their patients for substance use disorders, while only 0.9% report doing so regularly. In the case of addiction problems, 55.2% of the PCUs do not implement any specific measures. Most respondents described their approach to prescribing medications with potential for substance misuse as liberal (71.6%) or very liberal (12.9%). Furthermore, 78.4% reported that the addictive potential of a medication has little or no influence on their prescribing decisions. Finally, 67.2% of participants expressed a desire for more education about addiction in palliative care. DISCUSSION: The data collected in our study indicate that, from the perspective of palliative care professionals, substance use disorders are not perceived as a significant problem for patients receiving inpatient palliative care. However, we found that most PCUs do not screen their patients for substance misuse, suggesting that most practitioners may not have a comprehensive view of the actual number of dependent patients. Further research is therefore needed to obtain reliable data on the number of patients with substance use disorders in palliative care and to determine the point at which substance misuse is caused by medical prescription.
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