Old Mill Chiropractic 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 overlooked. Primary care physicians do not feel much confidence treating musculoskeletal pain. (1) Family practitioners are the largest prescribers of opioids. (2) Meanwhile, who takes care of 40% of pain patients? Chiropractors! (1) Your St Peters chiropractor at Old Mill Chiropractic treats many pain patients and eases a good deal of St Peters back pain often exclusive of opioids.

STATISTICS ON OPIOIDS FOR PAIN

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

• 40.4% of pain patients obtained opioid prescriptions for the first time 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 initially 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.

Old Mill Chiropractic welcomes pain patients to seek St Peters chiropractic care sooner than later!

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 managing musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. (1) Chiropractors like yours at Old Mill Chiropractic confidently use non-drug management and/or co-management with other providers for the pain relief and pain control for St Peters back pain patients.

CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE

Old Mill Chiropractic speculates why chiropractors aren’t more immediately thought of in the process for St Peters pain relief, especially St Peters back pain relief. Chiropractic services include spinal manipulation (one of the highest recommended types 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 believe their medical doctor knows about nutrition. (4) And that is fine if healthcare professionals collaborated sharing their expertise, acknowledging that each has a role in the care of the pain patient and has the best welfare of the patient fundamentally. Chiropractors are proficient 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 St Peters back pain patient care are established in an attempt 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 up-to-date treatment guidelines. Activity messages do differ by profession though: nurses were more restrictive in their recommendations of activity; physicians were more consistent with guidelines; physiotherapists recommended much more activity but less work activity than physicians. (5) Old Mill Chiropractic collaborates with other local St Peters healthcare providers for patient care, valuing their expertise and involvement in St Peters back pain patients’ return to activities of daily living that make each day better.

CONTACT Old Mill Chiropractic

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