Successful and unsuccessful outcomes with long-term opioid therapy: a survey of physicians' opinions.

Background: The attitudes, beliefs, and experience of physicians will influence how they view the use of opioids for chronic nonterminal pain.

Objective: To survey pain specialists and primary care providers (PCPs) to obtain their opinion and attitude on aberrant drug-taking behaviors.

Design: We surveyed three physician groups, mailing 250 surveys followed by two followups.