**2. Methods**

The ERONA (experiencing the risk of overutilizing opioids among patients with chronic noncancer pain in ambulatory care) project—consisting of four prospective exploratory, randomized controlled online trials (RCT) with four independent study populations—aimed to investigate experiential versus text-based educational formats (DRKS00020358). The full peer-reviewed study protocol is published elsewhere [25]. The data reported here are based on survey questions that were included in the RCT prior to randomization of the physicians to one of two educational interventions addressing the benefit-to-harm ratio of strong opioids, defined as World Health Organization Step III opioids.
