TY - JOUR T1 - Opioid prescribing and medical education: can primary care fill in the gaps? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 535 LP - 535 DO - 10.3399/bjgp22X721097 VL - 72 IS - 724 AU - Rayan Alfuhaid Y1 - 2022/11/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/72/724/535.abstract N2 - Prescribing opioids has increased since 1998,1 with 12.8% of England’s population having had a non-cancer opioid prescription dispensed over a 1 year interval. Approximately 50% of these patients take their prescription for at least 1 year.2 With 43% of adults currently living with a degree of chronic pain in the UK,3 it is likely, and concerning, that overprescribing of opioids will continue. An audit of opioid prescribing on a GP placement inspired me to reflect on how medical education is failing to prepare the next generation of prescribers to be ‘opioid aware’.Pain education is insufficiently presented in medical schools given the burden of pain in the general population. Further, pain education is largely fragmented throughout the curricula, with no standardised approach to tackle such … ER -