Last Tuesday, July 7, our colleague from the Pain Observatory team, Helena de Sola Perea, defended her doctoral thesis entitled Prevalence and associated factors of the use of opioids in the treatment of chronic non-cancer pain. Perspective of the general Spanish population and the experience of patients. An excellent and precise work that has been directed by Dr. Inmaculada Failde Martínez and Dr. Alejandro Salazar and that was marked with a Cum Laude distinction.
The presentation and defense of the thesis was carried out by videoconference due to the current regulation of the University of Cádiz.
The court in charge of evaluating the work presented by Helena was formed by Dr. Luis Filipe Ribeiro de Azevedo, professor at the Department of Information and Decision Sciences in Health of the University of Oporto, Dr. José Almenara Barrios, professor of the Universitary School at the Department of Biomedicine, Biotechnology and Public Health of the University of Cádiz and Dr. Eugenia Gil García, professor at the Department of Nursing of the University of Seville.
A relevant topic in the pain field
The thesis addresses, throughout its four articles, aspects and consequences about the use of opioid treatment in recent years. It analyses the prevalence of the opioid treatment in patients with chronic pain and the Spanish mortality evolution related to the use of opioids using different types of methods.
In addition, taking into account that the attitude and behavior towards opioids can change depending on the beliefs that people have about them, the thesis analyses the Spanish general opinion about the opioid treatment for chronic pain. Finally, it gives voice to patients who use opioid treatment to treat their pain using a qualitative method.
During its development, the thesis has appeared in conferences and papers from important journals such as Current Medical Research and Opinion, Journal of Pain and Symptoms Management and Health Expectations. Besides, the author has been trained in the management of databases and several methodological techniques for their application in the health field. Within this period, it is remarkable her stay at the Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine of the Epidemiology and Global Health Unit of the University of Umeå (Sweden) during three months.
We trust that all we have learned during these years would be useful and would lead to an improvement of knowledge of chronic pain in the Spanish population, one of the aims of this observatory.
From these lines, we want to congratulate Dr. De Sola for her success, wishing her a great future in the research world. Congratulations!
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