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Chiropractic Care Offers Options to Opioids for Pain Relief

Opioids. Back Pain. Treatment Options. Chiropractic has a place in managing and easing pain that should not be ignored. Primary care physicians don’t feel very confident treating musculoskeletal pain. (1) Family practitioners are the leading prescribers of opioids. (2) Meanwhile, who takes care of 40% of pain patients? Chiropractors! (1) Your West Palm Beach chiropractor at Chiropractic Care sees many pain patients and relieves a good deal of West Palm Beach back pain often with no opioids.

STATISTICS ON OPIOIDS FOR PAIN

The following stats are founded on a large study of 478,981 newly diagnosed, “opiate-naïve” patients who begin utilizing opiates for pain relief. (2)

  • 40.4% of pain patients obtained opioid prescriptions initially inside the first year of pain but only 4% met the requirement for long-term use.
  • Family practice doctors are the most common 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 likely 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.

Chiropractic Care welcomes pain patients to seek West Palm Beach 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 probable physicians to feel confident treating musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. (1) Chiropractors like yours at Chiropractic Care confidently use non-drug management and/or co-management with other providers for the pain relief and pain control for West Palm Beach back pain patients.

CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE

Chiropractic Care speculates why chiropractors are not more immediately thought of in the process for West Palm Beach pain relief, especially West Palm Beach back pain relief. Chiropractic services incorporate spinal manipulation (one of the top 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 knows about nutrition. (4) And that is fine if healthcare professionals coordinated care sharing their expertise, acknowledging that each has a role in the care of the pain patient and has the best interest of the patient fundamentally. Chiropractors have expertise in non-surgical and non-drug care of pain, back pain, and spine pain.

COORDINATING CARE

Recognizing that a healthcare provider’s profession influences his/her treatment recommendations, guidelines for West Palm Beach back pain patient care are established to try to use the expertise fully. Interdisciplinary care challenges differences among professions and their recommendation standards so that a patient gets a consistent therapy message with current 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) Chiropractic Care works with other local West Palm Beach healthcare providers for patient care, appreciating their expertise and involvement in West Palm Beach back pain patients’ return to activities that they like to do.

CONTACT Chiropractic Care

Schedule a West Palm Beach chiropractic appointment with Chiropractic Care for interdisciplinary care of your pain. Your West Palm Beach chiropractor is willing and able to work with fellow West Palm Beach healthcare providers and to offer you options on how to manage your back pain beyond and/or alongside opioid drug care.

 
West Palm Beach back pain and chronic pain often find relief at Chiropractic Care without opioids. 
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"This information and website content is not intended to diagnose, guarantee results, or recommend specific treatment or activity. It is designed to educate and inform only. Please consult your physician for a thorough examination leading to a diagnosis and well-planned treatment strategy. See more details on the DISCLAIMER page. Content is reviewed by Dr. James M. Cox I."