Evaluation of Physician's Opioid Prescribing Practices, Attitude and Interaction with Other Health Care Professionals in Optimizing Opioid Prescribing in Pakistan

Hafsa Arshad^1,2,3*Ali Hassan Gillani^1,2,3Arshed Muhammad⁴Yu Fang^1,2,3*

• ¹Department of Pharmacy Management and Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
• ²Drug Safety and Policy Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
• ³Centre for Health Reform and Development Research, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
• ⁴University Institute of Public Health Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, The University of Lahore, Lahore, Pakistan

The community is going to face an imminent opioid crisis, with prescription opioids playing a significant role in its occurrence. We conducted a study to assess physicians' experiences with opioid prescribing, their reported degree of confidence in prescribing, any adverse events that occurred, and their interactions with other healthcare providers regarding opioid medication.From October 2023 to March 2024, physicians in three cities in Punjab, Pakistan, participated in a physical, cross-sectional survey based on questionnaires. A total of 56 item questionnaire were distributed to physicians working in both public and private hospitals. The demographic and other items were evaluated using descriptive statistics, and the association between knowledge, attitude, and concerns was tested using the spearman Rho test. The statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS.Out of the 1009 physicians who were contacted for the study, 816 (80.9%) answered and successfully completed the survey. The average age of these physicians was 38 years. The majority of respondents were male, accounting for 58.8% of the total and equal proportion of respondents, 56.9%, were from government hospitals. The majority of individuals (92.2%) were knowledgeable about the possible hazards, negative consequences, and risk factors associated with opioid misuse (90.2%). The majority of physicians displayed a favorable attitude, with 54.9% expressing confidence in their ability to detect patients with a strong propensity for addiction. The majority of physicians expressed worries regarding the use and management of opioids, with 11.8% indicating no concern about legislation and 7.8%indicating no concern about overdose and abuse. 51.0% of the participants never prescribed opioids, while 5.9% had a tendency of regularly prescribing them to patients. There is a strong positive linear correlation between knowledge and attitude, knowledge and concerns, and attitude and concerns.Prescribers were well aware of risk factors and abuse related problems and shown good attitude and positive concerns regarding the opioid use. The practices are moderately