Backgraound: Most physicians may have experiences prescribing narcotic analgesics to control pain in patients with severe pain. The purpose of this research is to investigate perception level of patients about taking narcotic analgesics.

Methods: Anonymous questionnaires about taking narcotic analgesics were asked to 368 patients who visited in 14 university hospitals of Korea, from September to October, 2018.

Result: Of the 368 patients surveyed, 52.9% were female and 47.4% were male. In the results, 56.9% of patients had prescribed narcotic analgesics and 43.1% did not. Of the patients who had been prescribed narcotic analgesics, 92.8% of patients had heard of narcotic analgesics, and 72.6% of them had a positive perception of narcotic analgesics. 20.9% of respondents said ‘neutral’. The side effects experienced by the patient were constipation (35.4%), dizziness (24.6%), nausea and vomiting (17.4%) and addiction (2.1%).
On the other hand, 38.5% of the patients who did not have prescribed narcotic analgesics said that they will not take narcotic analgesics even though their doctor prescribed them. The reason for this was the fear of side effects (62.8%) and the concern about addiction (33.3%).
According to pain intensity, 66.9% of the patients said they would use narcotic analgesics when they have above 7 points (0: no pain, 10: most severe pain imaginable), and 15.1% of the patients said they would use them when they were above 6 points.
The primary sources of information about narcotic analgesics were from doctors (48.9%), mass media (31.3%), and the internet (16%).

Conclusion: Most of the patients who were prescribed narcotic analgesics had heard the doctor \'s explanation and generally had more positive perceptions than other patients without narcotic analgesic medication. However, more than half of the patients who had never been prescribed a narcotic analgesic had information about the drugs from sources other than doctors.