Perceptions of Community-Dwelling Patients and Their Physicians on OxyContin® Discontinuation and the Impact on Chronic Pain Management

Table 3

Themes identified from patient interviews.

Themes	Subthemes
(1) Disagreement with motive for discontinuation	Critical of authorities for discontinuing effective drug	Anticipate persistence of addiction problems	Feel irrationally deprived of pain medication	Address one issue by creating another	Blame prescribers for misuse and abuse	Question GPs ability to prescribe opioids	Discontinuation considered addicts not patients	Alternate solutions to addiction issues
(2) Discontinuation negatively impacted pain control	Optimal pain relief with OxyContin	Poorer pain management with substitutes	Endure trials of alternate medications	Experience withdrawal symptoms	Increased pain affecting cognition and function	Retrain self to manage new medications	Cost barrier to OxyNEO
(3) Discontinuation insignificantly impacted pain control	Rate pain relief equivalent to before discontinuation	Continued receiving satisfactory pain control	Continued receiving inadequate pain control	Identification of differences in medications	Discontinuation has impact on other aspects
(4) Choosing to get off OxyContin permanently	Fear lifelong dependence on OxyContin	Addiction to OxyContin driving decision	Tolerate withdrawal symptoms	Bear worsened pain	Reliance on distraction to ease pain
(5) Learning to live with pain	Accepting life with pain	Recognize few alternatives	Wishing for a miracle drug	Hope to regain OxyContin
(6) Barriers and opportunities in optimizing care	Learning about discontinuation from the media	Communication gap between patients and professionals	Feeling unheard by healthcare providers	Professionals not advising of addictive properties	Professionals not educating patients	Inadequate integration of general and pain clinics	Lack regulatory program to reassess pain	Not involving patients with decision-making