Chronic pain exacts a terrible toll on human well-being. More than 10 percent of Americans suffer from pain every day, according to the National Institutes of Health, and many more suffer from it sporadically. Academic research has found that pain is one of the biggest sources of unhappiness. Because of chronic pain, the use of opioids has become a public-health crisis – playing a role in some 50,000 overdose deaths in the United States last year.
Chiropractic and other conservative (non-drug) approaches to pain management can be an important first line of defense against pain and addiction caused by the overuse of prescription opioid pain medications. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends safe alternatives like chiropractic care for the management of most non-cancer-related pain. Physical therapists partner with patients, their families, and other health care professionals to manage pain, often reducing or eliminating the need for opioids.
According to the American Chiropractic Association, “In 2017, the American College of Physicians (ACP) updated its guidelines for the treatment of acute and chronic low back pain to recommend first using non-invasive, non-drug treatments before resorting to drug therapies. ACP’s guidelines, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine and based on a review of randomized controlled trials and observational studies, cite heat therapy, massage, acupuncture and spinal manipulation (a centerpiece of chiropractic care) as possible options for non-invasive, non-drug therapies for low back pain.”
In a new meta-analysis and systematic review, presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine 2019 Annual Meeting, patients who visited a chiropractor for a musculoskeletal pain condition were 49% less likely to receive an opioid prescription than their counterparts who went to other healthcare providers.
Chiropractic care can help patients get to the bottom of their pain - not just mask it with medicine. Many payers already cover non-opioid pain management and treatment services to some degree, but they often limit the duration of services or require administrative actions that could create barriers to care. Given the massive opioid public health crisis and the scientific correlation between non-invasive pain management reducing the need for pain medicine, chiropractic care should be viewed as a first-line treatment for patients.