Chemical coping and opioid addiction: Evidence, risk assessment and management in patients receiving palliative care

One of the current goals in palliative care is intervention in the earlier disease phases. This involves caring for more patients as outpatients, with longer survival, and more prolonged exposure to opioids, which increases the risk of opioid misuse. Most of the data on chemical coping and addiction come from the U.S., and from studies on chronic pain patients. The frequency of chemical coping in cancer patients has been estimated at around 18%, whereas the frequency of addiction is less than 5% in the same patients. Disregarding these diagnoses may increase opioids’ side effects and make pain management more difficult. Risk assessment of opioid misuse is recommended in all patients who are given opioids, with especial attention to aberrant behaviours. Multidisciplinary management of «total pain» is particularly important in chemical coping and addiction, understanding that the main cause of pain would be emotional and spiritual distress rather than nociception.