Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of interns towards cancer pain and its management.

Design: A descriptive study.

Materials and methods: The interns who recently graduated from Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, provided their background information and answered a questionnaire about their knowledge and attitudes towards cancer pain and its management.

Results: One hundred and twenty five interns (out of 130) completed the questionnaire. More than half of the interns (63.4 %) thought that increased analgesic requirements in cancer pain patients resulted from increased pain intensity. Fifty two percent thought that pethidine should not be used

in comparison to morphine. About half (51.6%) did not think that long-term use of pethidine contributed to less tolerance, addiction and other side effects. The majority of the interns considered lack of knowledge (83.9%) and incomplete pain assessment (77.4%) as barriers to effective cancer pain management. Nearly half (49.2%) thought that inadequate time for health care professionals to take care of patients was also a barrier to sufficient pain management.

Conclusions: About half of the interns showed positive attitudes towards the use of analgesics to control cancer pain. Even though about half of the interns had correct knowledge regarding pain management with opioids, a significant number of them held incorrect knowledge. Inadequate knowledge, incomplete pain assessment and insufficient time to take care of patients were considered as barriers to effective cancer pain management. This study demonstrated that pain education is essential to improve physicians'

knowledge, which in turn would improve pain management.