2: Patients ideally referred to a multidisciplinary pain management centre before prescribing opioids

• Patients with a history of previous or continuing drug addiction

• Patients whose previous use of opioids led to problems

• Psychologically unstable patients

• Young patients with obscure pathology

• Complex compensable patients (i.e., patients whose treatment is being paid for by a third party, whose pain behaviour, clinical findings and response to treatment suggest that factors other than the nociceptive source are more important than is usually the case)

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