title: General practitioners' opinions on the intake of painkillers among patients.
abstract: The goal of this paper is to evaluate the consumption of painkillers among patients on the basis of the opinions of general practitioners. The most frequent ailments including pain symptoms were the cases of long-continued pain (64.3%); less frequent were acute pain syndromes in the course of a disease (35.7%). The phenomenon of the excessive use of painkillers among patients with long-continued pain syndromes is observed by the GPs. Uncontrolled self-treatment is possible owing to an easy access to this type of medicaments. The excessive use of analgesic medicines in therapy frequently results from the lack of simultaneous application of other methods of pain treatment e.g., in physiotherapy, psychotherapy. Long lasting use of various types of painkillers can lead to drug addiction. This problem is observed by over a half of the GPs (67.1%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health, Medical University of Lublin.
authors.forename: Maciej
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Latalski
authors.forename: Hanna
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Skórzyńska
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pacian
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D010146:Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000453:epidemiology; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011044:Poland; D012017:Referral and Consultation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012651:Self Medication / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics; D000894:Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs