Parental Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Risks Associated With Opioid Use in Children With Cancer

April 28, 2026 updated by: M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Parental Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Risks Associated With Opioid Use in Children

This study investigates parents' attitudes and beliefs on the risks of opioid use in children with cancer. Pain is the common symptom reported by pediatric cancer patients. Opioids are the mainstay in the treatment of cancer-related pain. Despite an almost universal desire to prevent or mitigate pain in their children, parents exhibit complex behaviors from withholding prescribed opioids entirely to giving less than the prescribed analgesic dose of opioid to discontinuing despite ongoing pain. Information gathered from this study may help address a crucial knowledge gap in researchers' understanding of parental attitudes and beliefs regarding the risks associated with opioid use in children and adolescents.

Study Overview

Status

Active, not recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. To determine parents' level of concern regarding the use of opioids for pain in their children.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVES:

I. To explore differences in parents' level of concern regarding the use of opioids for pain in their children as well as level of concern for side effect of opioids between the opioid subgroup and non-opioid subgroup.

II. To explore differences in other parental attitudes and beliefs between the opioid subgroup and the non-opioid subgroup.

III. For each concern, associations between:

IIIa. Level of concern regarding the use of opioids and the age and disease of the child.

IIIb. Level of concern regarding the use of opioids and parental history of addiction.

IIIc. Level of concern regarding the use of opioids and a family history of addiction.

OUTLINE:

Parents complete survey over 20 minutes. Patients' medical records are reviewed.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

110

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Houston, Texas, United States, 77030
        • M D Anderson Cancer Center

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Parents whose children are on or have been on an opioid for cancer-related pain and parents whose children have not been on an opioid for cancer-related pain

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Parents must be at least 18 years old
  • The parent must be able to understand, read, write, and speak English
  • The parent must provide verbal informed consent
  • The child of the parents must be 18 years old or younger
  • The child must have a diagnosis of cancer

Exclusion Criteria:

A non-cancer diagnosis (neurofibromatosis, Li-Fraumeni syndrome for example).

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Observational (survey, medical record review)
Parents complete survey over 20 minutes. Patients' medical records are reviewed.
Other: Survey Administration
Complete survey
Other: Electronic Health Record Review
Review of medical records

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Parents' level of concern regarding the use of opioids for pain in their children.
Time Frame: through study completion, an average of 1 year
Will be summarized using proportion along with a 95% confidence interval in opioid subgroup and non-opioid subgroup separately.
through study completion, an average of 1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Kevin Madden, MD, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

December 3, 2020

Primary Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 1, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 14, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

September 23, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

May 4, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 28, 2026

Last Verified

April 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2019-1169 (Other Identifier: M D Anderson Cancer Center)
  • NCI-2021-01159 (Registry Identifier: CTRP (Clinical Trial Reporting Program))

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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