A primer of ethical issues involving opioid therapy for chronic nonmalignant pain in a multidisciplinary setting.

OBJECTIVE

This forum presents a clinical vignette of orofacial pain and expounds on ethical issues related to opioid therapy in the context of multidisciplinary treatment. The purpose of this forum is to assist health care providers from different disciplines in identifying ethical issues and conflicts regarding opioid therapy encountered in multidisciplinary clinical pain practices.

DESIGN

We use the case vignette and opioid therapy as a backdrop for a discussion of 1) an overview of ethics terminology; 2) a presentation of key ethics principles; 3) our conceptualization of ethical obligations of patients regarding opioid therapy; and 4) the process of developing an appropriate treatment plan within the context of the discussed ethical principles.