The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in March 2016 issued guidelines regarding the prescription of opioids for pain management. While I applaud that announcement, I like to remind my patients that chiropractic has always been a conservative form of pain management that helps patients avoid their reliance on addictive painkillers.
I have talked before about our nation’s opioid overuse epidemic, and it’s that epidemic that sparked the CDC’s newly issued Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Chronic Pain.
The mission at Waldron Chiropractic has always been to help patients feel better and move better, so they can return to their normal lives and activities. Unlike most medical doctors, chiropractors are well positioned to play a vital role in the conservative management of acute and chronic pain. We offer complementary and integrative strategies, as well as guidance on self care, that can provide needed relief for many who suffer from pain.
The CDC’s guideline, released on March 15, offers a framework for primary care physicians treating patients for chronic pain, which is defined by health officials as pain that lasts more than three months or doesn’t dissipate after the amount of time the injury or illness typically resolves. More than half of all opioids used in the United States are prescribed by primary care physicians in outpatient settings, and according to CDC, at least 40 people in the U.S. die each day from an opioid overdose.
Chiropracctors have long been concerned about the growing reliance on prescription medications for pain. I am one of many of those in the chiropractic profession who are committed ongoing efforts to educate my patients about the value of exhausting non-invasive, non-pharmaceutical approaches for pain management before moving on to higher-risk options.
If you are suffering from chronic pain, call our office today at 425-778-9600 for a consultation. We may able to help you with more cost-effective and safer approaches over potentially addictive medications, surgery and other invasive procedures for pain management.
— Dr. Waldron