Opioids. Back Pain. Treatment Options. Chiropractic has a place
in managing and relieving pain that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Primary care physicians do not
feel much confidence treating
musculoskeletal pain. (1) Family practitioners are the largest
prescribers of opioids. (2) Meanwhile, who treats 40% of
pain patients? Chiropractors! (1) Your Williamson chiropractor at Apple Country Chiropractic
treats many pain patients and relieves a great deal of Williamson back pain often with
no opioids.
STATISTICS ON OPIOIDS FOR PAIN
The following stats are founded
on a huge study of 478,981 newly diagnosed, “opiate-naïve”
patients who start utilizing opiates for pain relief. (2)
- 40.4% of pain patients received
opioid prescriptions originally within a year of pain but only 4% met the requirement for
long-term use.
- Family practice doctors are the most usual
first prescribers of opiates for pain whose risk of prescribing these early in
the pain process is 24.4% while those patients then have a 2% risk of long-term,
continued opiate use.
- Patients who look for care from emergency
medicine doctors (43.1%) or urgent care facility (40.8%) are most
certainly to be prescribed opiates early in their pain cycle.
- Patients diagnosed first by a pain
management doctor or physical medicine and rehab provider have an increased risk of long-term opioid use by 6.7% and 3.4%, respectively.
Apple Country Chiropractic invites pain patients to seek
Williamson chiropractic care first!
PHYSICIANS WHO TREAT PAIN
Primary care physicians (52%), pain physicians (2%),
chiropractors (40%), acupuncturists (7%) take care of
chronic pain patients. Primary care physicians are the least likely
physicians to feel confident treating musculoskeletal and neuropathic
pain. (1) Chiropractors like yours at Apple Country Chiropractic confidently use
non-drug management and/or co-management with other healthcare
personnel for the pain relief and pain control for Williamson back
pain patients.
CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE
Apple Country Chiropractic ponders why
chiropractors aren’t more readily thought of
in the process for Williamson pain relief, particularly
Williamson back pain relief. Chiropractic services intergrate
spinal manipulation (one of the highest recommended forms
of care for back pain by the American Pain Society and the American College of
Physicians (3)), exercise, and nutrition. What stops some
medical doctors from considering nutrition? A recent article states the reason
in its title: “Nutrition: Push For Doctors To Learn Nutrition: Many Graduate
Without Training.” It also notes that patients think
their medical doctor understands nutrition. (4) And that is ok if
healthcare professionals collaborated sharing their expertise, acknowledging that each
offers value in the care of the pain patient and has the best welfare
of the patient at heart. Chiropractors have expertise in non-surgical and non-drug care of pain, back
pain, and spine pain.
COORDINATING CARE
Knowing that a healthcare provider’s
profession effects his/her treatment recommendations,
guidelines for Williamson back pain patient care are established
to try to utilize the expertise maximally.
Interdisciplinary care challenges differences among professions and their
recommendation standards so that a patient receives a consistent
therapy message with up-to-date treatment guidelines. Activity messages
do vary by profession though: nurses were more restrictive in
their recommendations of activity; physicians were more aligned
with guidelines; physiotherapists recommended much more activity but less work
activity than physicians. (5) Apple Country Chiropractic works with other
local Williamson healthcare providers for patient care, valuing
their expertise and contribution to Williamson
back pain patients’ return to activities of daily living that make each day better.
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Schedule a Williamson chiropractic appointment with
Apple Country Chiropractic for interdisciplinary care of your pain. Your
Williamson chiropractor is ready and willing to
work with fellow Williamson healthcare providers and to share
with you options on managing your back pain beyond and/or
alongside opioid drug care.