| Summary: | Until recently, pain therapy in Italy was conducted with largely sub-optimal standards, as revealed by one of the lowest mean morphine consumption values, an important indicator of pain therapy quality according to the WHO, among industrialized countries. The recognition of such a negative situation has led to an important effort to improvement, carried out by the law-maker, institutions and health professionals. As suggested by the WHO, these efforts aimed at three main objectives: reducing the cultural barriers to appropriate opioid use through targeted education and information, easing of analgesic drug prescription and availability, and improvement of the integration among hospital-based and domiciliar pain management and care-giving. In this article, the new legal framework concerning the prescription and administration of analgesics - regulatory innovations started in February 2001 - is presented and its practical implications for health professionals are discussed. Alongside the new laws, some regulatory interventions recently adopted by the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) are presented and discussed, as they share the proposition of simplifying pain therapy and permit the prescription of more analgesics paid for by the National Health Service. In the last years, the premises for a more rational and modern approach to pain therapy in Italy have been created, which will need to be followed by cultural, organizing and clinical practice adaptations in order to warrant effective and efficient management of algic patients.
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