Barriers to Pain Treatment
The barriers to pain management most often cited by the
professionals were: difficulty of pediatric patients to
express themselves, lack of prescribed drugs, fear of
adverse drug reaction (ADR), dependency and tolerance
resulting from the use of opioids, and professionals’ lack
of knowledge or discernment, as Table 2 shows.
Lack of prescribed drugs, inadequate prescription, and
bureaucracy were the most significant barriers identified
by nurses, pharmacists, and physiotherapist (P = 0.050).
The fact that children cannot verbalize pain and fear of
ADR (P = 0.014) was pointed out as the most important
barrier by physicians, technicians, and assistants. Despite
considerable fear of ADR, particularly respiratory depression,
63.5% (61/96) of participants never observed such
adverse effect. According to the respondents, the average
of patients with respiratory depression caused by the use
of opioids along the last 12 months was 1.3 ± 2.9.ICUPed was the unit in which such situation occurred
most often (3.5 ± 5.2