Attitudes about cancer pain: A survey of Wisconsin's first-year medical students

A brief questionnaire was administered to 317 first-year students at Wisconsin's two medical schools to assess their attitudes about cancer pain prior to their entry into medical school. Although the students had a realistic perspective of the prevalence and severity of cancer pain, they displayed a number of negative attitudes that if unchanged would contribute to future inadequate pain treatment. Students (a) greatly exaggerated the incidence of psychological dependence (addiction) in patients treated with opioid analgesics, (b) inappropriately timed maximal analgesic therapy to the duration of life expectancy, (c) felt that a majority of patients with cancer currently receive adequate or excessive analgesic therapy, and (d) believed that increasing pain was invariably related to the development of drug tolerance rather than to progression of the disease. Curricular efforts need to be directed at bringing about changes in students' negative attitudes about cancer pain and its management.