Pain among people who use drugs: state of knowledge and socio-anthropological issues
As a response to the current opioid crisis in North America, several health authorities have recommended not to prescribe opioid painkillers to people with a history of substance use. People who use drugs (PWUD) suffering from chronic pain are identified as a population at risk of opioid-related mortality and addiction. As such, they are likely to experience barriers of access to pain management. In this context, a knowledge synthesis about chronic pain in PWUD is highly needed. This article aims at identifying and discussing the available literature pertaining to (1) the prevalence of acute and chronic physical pain among PWUD, (2) the management of their pain in health services, and (3) their experience with self-medication of pain. To identify the intermingling social and public health issues raised by PWUD’s pain, we propose to make a link between epidemiological studies of PWUD’s pain and socio-anthropological studies of pain experience in the general population. This review shows that caregivers hardly acknowledge the existence of PWUD’s pain. We also examine the links between PWUD’s self-medication of pain and their barriers of access to medical pain management. By offering the opportunity to consider PWUD’s pain as a collective phenomenon at populational and sociological levels, this article opens new avenues for research, intervention with PWUD suffering from pain, and health policies in this area.