Public Stigma Toward Opioid Use in Chronic Pain: An Experimental Vignette Study

Le résumé fourni par la source

Opioids are widely used for pain management, however, their application in chronic non-cancer pain remains controversial. Despite clinical guidelines that recommend restricting their use due to an unfavorable cost–benefit profile, opioid consumption in Belgium has increased substantially over recent decades. Policy initiatives aimed at tapering opioid prescriptions, such as those implemented in the United States, have led to modest reductions in use, but have simultaneously contributed to increased stigma surrounding opioids. Patients with chronic pain frequently report that their symptoms are questioned or minimized, and the use of opioids may further exacerbate this stigmatization. Empirical evidence indicates that opioid-related stigma results in patients being labeled as “drug seekers,” and that they are often perceived by the general public as untrustworthy or potentially dangerous. The present study explores perceived public stigma toward opioid use, with particular attention to the potential influence of gender and news framing. Individuals from the general population participated in an online survey employing a 3 × 2 between-subjects design. Participants were first exposed to one of three news articles (neutral, destigmatizing, or stigmatizing), followed by a vignette describing either a male or female patient with chronic pain that uses opioids. Subsequently, participants completed rating scales assessing affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses toward the fictional individual. Importantly, participants were instructed to base their responses on how they believed the general population would evaluate the person described. It is hypothesized that exposure to a stigmatizing news article will be associated with more pronounced negative affective, cognitive, and behavioral responses toward the fictitious patient, whereas exposure to a destigmatizing article is expected to diminish such responses. Furthermore, drawing on prior literature on addiction-related stigma, it is hypothesized that within the stigmatizing condition, negative responses will be more pronounced toward a male patient compared to a female patient.

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