Science AI Journal
Medicine · Research topic

Open research questions in Pain Management and Opioid Use

216 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 1,278 Pain Management and Opioid Use papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • The available evidence is heterogeneous across patient populations, surgical procedures, analgesic techniques, and outcome definitions. No single patient characteristic consistently predicts postoperative pain or opioid requirements.

    Individualizing Perioperative Analgesia: Patient-Specific Determinants of Postoperative Pain and Opioid-Related Outcomes · 2026 · DOI

  • The mismatch between expectations and realities of chronic pain. The lack of recognition of chronic pain as a systems level public health issue. The need to create realistic expectations and reduce the misattribution of system-shaped outcomes to individual failure.

    The expectations we build: reframing chronic pain outcomes as a systems level public health issue · 2026 · DOI

  • While pain is a known risk factor for cognitive decline, its dyadic effects within couples remain poorly understood.

    The influence of pain on the cognitive function of middle-aged and older couples in China · 2026 · DOI

  • They maintain a well-established role in acute postoperative and cancer-related pain, whereas their use in chronic non-cancer pain remains controversial.

    Optimizing Opioid Use in Pain Management: A Comprehensive Review of Clinical Benefits, Risks, and Dependence · 2026 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Older people with dementia are frequently prescribed opioids, but little is known about adverse events associated with opioid use in this population.

    Risk of hospitalization and opioid use in older people with dementia · 2026 · DOI

  • • An important gap in the literature is the impact of nursing students'own experience of pain on clinical pain management.

    Pain knowledge and personal experiences can influence clinical pain management attitudes: a cross-sectional study · 2025 · DOI

  • Conclusions: Pharmacological interventions, particularly dexamethasone and lidocaine, remain the cornerstone of pain management in TACE, yet consensus on their optimal use is lacking.

    Strategies for Pain Management in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Transarterial Chemoembolisation: A Scoping Review of Current Evidence · 2025 · DOI

  • However, post-procedural pain remains a significant challenge due to inconsistent management practices and a lack of standardised protocols.

    Strategies for Pain Management in Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients Undergoing Transarterial Chemoembolisation: A Scoping Review of Current Evidence · 2025 · DOI

  • Little is known about unintended outcomes of this guideline on analgesic prescribing for older adults with cancer, who commonly require opioids as first-line pain treatment.

    The 2016 CDC Opioid Guideline and Analgesic Prescribing Patterns in Older Adults With Cancer · 2025 · DOI

  • Evidence on the quality of life of patients with refractory chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) using these devices and their long-term outcomes is scarce.

    Multidimensional Analysis of Quality of Life in Patients with Chronic Non-Cancer Pain and Short- and Long-Term Intrathecal Analgesic Therapy · 2024 · DOI

  • We need to first ask how was pain control or relief measured and if the conclusion is warranted based on the assessment strategy.

    Assessing Pain Among Oncology and Terminally Ill Patients: Psychometric Considerations · 1986 · DOI

  • There is a lack of effective tools to evaluate nurses' pain-management competency. Existing tools may not be specific to surgical nurses or postoperative pain management.

    Development and psychometric evaluation of a tool to measure pain-management competency of surgical nurses · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a lack of comprehensive studies on pain assessment and management in people with dementia. Prior work has shown that pain in people with dementia is often undermanaged.

    Observing and treating pain in people living with dementia in long-term care facilities · 2026 · DOI

  • Standardized pain management guidelines and stepwise protocols for pain assessment and management in long-term care facilities may contribute to reducing the underdiagnosis and undertreatment of pain in individuals with dementia. Structured approaches, such as the Sta-op! method support systematic observation and identification of pain-related behaviors. Using this method in combination with the guidelines on pain in people with dementia, such as the Verenso Guideline, may promote increased use of non-pharmacological interventions for pain management (28). To our knowledge, this is the first study to provide an overview of how pain is observed, assessed, and managed in Dutch long-term care facilities. Strengths of this study include mixed-methods sequential explanatory design and the use of in-depth interviews to contextualize survey findings. The nationwide distribution of the survey contributes to the generalizability of the findings. Also, findings like the emphasis on behavioral changes as key indicators of pain in individuals with impaired communication are likely relevant beyond the Dutch context and reflect issues faced in long-term care facilities be several internationally. However, acknowledged. Participants were not asked to specify their longterm care facility, limiting insight into organizational diversity. Therefore, there could be a bias where facilities with solidly embedded pain management programs participated in the study, while facilities with less embedded programs did not. Also, participant were not asked which specific observational pain scales were used in practice. This information could have provided insight into the usability of different instruments. The small restricts number of managers generalizability for these groups. Another is that different subgroups have different roles in the interprofessional team that provides the pain observations and management, but the subgroups were too small to analyze separately. Both survey and interview data may be subject to socially desirable responses, and the study title may have led to overreporting of nonpharmacological intervention use. Self-reported measures of pain are widely considered the gold standard, including in populations with dementia. However, in the present study, specific inquiries regarding the utilization of self-report instruments for pain assessment were not conducted. Consequently, it remains unclear whether self-reports are employed in individuals with dementia, the frequency of their use, or whether individuals are first asked about their pain experience prior to implementing observational assessment tools. Additionally, most participants were female and highly educated, which may limit representativeness.

    Observing and treating pain in people living with dementia in long-term care facilities · 2026 · DOI

  • The study excluded patients without available PCA device logs, - The analysis was limited to patients undergoing specific surgical procedures

    Beyond opioid dosage: temporal dynamics of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia use captured by electronic device logs—a post hoc analysis of three randomized controlled trials · 2026 · DOI

  • The need for a detailed understanding of IV-PCA usage patterns, - The importance of considering temporal dynamics in IV-PCA use

    Beyond opioid dosage: temporal dynamics of intravenous patient-controlled analgesia use captured by electronic device logs—a post hoc analysis of three randomized controlled trials · 2026 · DOI

  • There is a gap between the evidence and clinical implementation of pain management practices. Current pain assessment practices often fail to reflect best evidence.

    Optimising pain management in intensive care setting: Insights from a realist evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Building on previous insights, we propose the following recommendations to optimise pain management for sedated and ventilated patients. Collaborative engagement from all stakeholders may be essential to achieve this goal and improve outcomes across organ- isational levels. Table 2 provides a summary of these recommendations.

    Optimising pain management in intensive care setting: Insights from a realist evaluation · 2026 · DOI

  • Accumulated multimorbidity, frailty, and polypharmacy in older adults. Limited oral opioid regimens due to dysphagia, nausea, bowel dysfunction, or rapidly fluctuating symptom intensity. Need for effective rescue strategies for severe opioid-refractory cancer pain.

    Subcutaneous patient-controlled analgesia with hydromorphone for the treatment of refractory cancer pain in older hospitalized patients: a retrospective real-world study · 2026 · DOI

  • Missingness remained below 10% for the primary outcome but was higher for selected baseline measures. The study used complete-case analyses rather than multiple imputation due to uncertain missing-at-random assumptions. Delirium was not systematically coded in the source dataset and could not be evaluated.

    Subcutaneous patient-controlled analgesia with hydromorphone for the treatment of refractory cancer pain in older hospitalized patients: a retrospective real-world study · 2026 · DOI

  • The certainty of evidence was evaluated as low for all outcomes, mainly due to population heterogeneity and lack of uniformity in intervention administration. Missing outcome data and selective reporting were sources of uncertainty. The main source of concern related to confounding and participant selection in nonrandomized studies.

    Cannabinoids and opioid consumption in cancer pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • The impact of cannabinoids on opioid consumption in cancer patients remains uncertain. There is a need for high-quality, randomized controlled trials to fully understand the potential benefits and risks of cannabinoids in cancer pain management.

    Cannabinoids and opioid consumption in cancer pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis · 2026 · DOI

  • Conducting randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and implementation studies to substantiate clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness - Integrating edge-AI devices to enhance data privacy while providing low-latency assistance - Developing AI-augmented simulation and training curricula to promote rapid skill acquisition

    Emerging technologies in interventional pain management: a scoping review on current innovations and future directions · 2026 · DOI

  • The clinical roles and evidence base of emerging technologies in interventional pain management remain unclear - There is a need for further research to substantiate clinical benefits and cost-effectiveness - The review identifies gaps for future research and guides future directions

    Emerging technologies in interventional pain management: a scoping review on current innovations and future directions · 2026 · DOI

  • Patient-related barriers, such as fear of addiction and limited knowledge, interfere with effective pain management. Clinical silence, or the relational failure of care, contributes to inadequate cancer pain management. The current approach to cancer pain management is inadequate, focusing primarily on pharmacological availability.

    The unheard pain: why patient-related barriers remain the weakest link in cancer pain management · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Pain Management and Opioid Use

Most recent work

Find a gap in your own Pain Management and Opioid Use sub-topic

This page shows what the Pain Management and Opioid Use literature already flags as unresolved. To narrow it to your specific question, run the guided finder — it searches the gap library on demand and checks candidates against 250M+ OpenAlex works.

Open the Research Gap Finder →

Related topics in Medicine

Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
2,044 open questions
Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
1,964 open questions
Smoking Behavior and Cessation
990 open questions
Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
974 open questions
Innovations in Medical Education
960 open questions
Physical Activity and Health
923 open questions
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
839 open questions
Schizophrenia research and treatment
709 open questions
216 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 1,278 Pain Management and Opioid Use papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

Tools for your next paper

Gaps & Literature SearchFind open questions in any field — 120,000+ open gaps mined from our own library.Pre-CheckIs your paper ready? A Tier 1–5 acceptance probability in seconds.Journal FinderA ranked shortlist of target journals from a 17,500-venue index.Duplicate Publication CheckerCheck prior-publication & salami-slicing risk across 8 sources.Citation GeneratorFreeA DOI or title → APA, MLA, Vancouver, Chicago, BibTeX, RIS. No signup.Graphical Abstract MakerFreeTurn your findings into a colorblind-safe graphical abstract.

Compare the category — Honest roundups of the AI research tools, ours listed alongside the alternatives.

Command palette

Jump anywhere, run any action.