Minster Chiropractic Center Offers Options to Opioids for Pain Relief

Opioids. Back Pain. Treatment Options. Chiropractic has a role in managing and easing pain that should not be ignored. Primary care physicians do not 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 Minster chiropractor at Minster Chiropractic Center treats many pain patients and eases a great deal of Minster back pain often exclusive of opioids.

STATISTICS ON OPIOIDS FOR PAIN

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

• 40.4% of pain patients received opioid prescriptions for the first time inside the first year of pain while 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 seek 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 a higher risk of long-term opioid use by 6.7% and 3.4%, respectively.

Minster Chiropractic Center invites pain patients to seek Minster chiropractic care sooner than later!

PHYSICIANS WHO TREAT PAIN

Primary care physicians (52%), pain physicians (2%), chiropractors (40%), acupuncturists (7%) treat chronic pain patients. Primary care physicians are the least likely physicians to feel confident treating musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. (1) Chiropractors like yours at Minster Chiropractic Center confidently use non-drug management and/or co-management with other providers for the pain relief and pain control for Minster back pain patients.

CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE

Minster Chiropractic Center ponders why chiropractors are not more immediately thought of in the process for Minster pain relief, especially Minster 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 shares that patients believe their medical doctor understands nutrition. (4) And that’s ok if healthcare professionals coordinated care along their lines of expertise, acknowledging that each offers value 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 effects his/her treatment recommendations, guidelines for Minster back pain patient care are established to try to utilize the expertise fully. Interdisciplinary care challenges differences among professions and their recommendation standards so that a patient receives a consistent therapy message with current treatment guidelines. Activity messages do differ by profession though: nurses were more restrictive in their recommendations of activity; physicians were more in line with guidelines; physiotherapists recommended much more activity but less work activity than physicians. (5) Minster Chiropractic Center works with other local Minster healthcare providers for patient care, appreciating their expertise and contribution to Minster back pain patients’ return to activities of daily living that make each day better.

CONTACT Minster Chiropractic Center

Schedule a Minster chiropractic appointment with Minster Chiropractic Center for interdisciplinary care of your pain. Your Minster chiropractor is willing and able to work with fellow Minster healthcare providers and to share with you options on managing your back pain beyond and/or alongside opioid drug care.