Barries in cancer pain treatment

Pain is a disastrous manifestation of cancer that influences the patients' quality of life, their families, and health care providers. It is a multidimensional symptom that includes the physical, psychosocial, emotional and spiritual character of the human organism. Despite the development of new analgesic drugs and updated guidelines, the pain management remains insufficient, and some patients with mild to severe pain do not received adequate pain treatment. This insufficient management can be attributed to barriers related to health professionals, to the patients, and the health care system. Common professional barriers include the bad pain evaluation, the lack of knowledge and skills, and the doctors' reluctance to prescribe opioids. The barriers related to the patient include cognitive factors, emotional factors, and the compliance with analgesic regimens. Barriers related to the health system, like the limited access to opioids, and limited availability of pain and palliative care experts, consist additional challenges, especially in poor countries. Given the multidimensional nature of cancer pain, and the multilevelbarriers involved, the effective pain management demands multimodal interventions from interscientific groups. Educational interventions to the patients and health professionals it is possible to improve the successof pain management.