Pure Chiropractic 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 aren’t very confident in 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 Concord, NC chiropractor at Pure Chiropractic takes care of many pain patients and relieves plenty of Concord, NC 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 originally within a year of pain but 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.

Pure Chiropractic welcomes pain patients to seek Concord, NC chiropractic care first!

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

CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE

Pure Chiropractic speculates why chiropractors aren’t more readily considered in the process for Concord, NC pain relief, particularly Concord, NC back pain relief. Chiropractic services include spinal manipulation (one of the top recommended types of care for back pain by the American Pain Society and the American College of Physicians (3)), exercise, and nutrition. What prevents 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 understands nutrition. (4) And that is fine if healthcare professionals collaborated along their lines of 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

Knowing that a healthcare provider’s profession effects his/her treatment recommendations, guidelines for Concord, NC back pain patient care are developed to try to apply 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 differ 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) Pure Chiropractic works with other local Concord, NC healthcare providers for patient care, valuing their expertise and contribution to Concord, NC back pain patients’ return to activities of daily living that make each day better.

CONTACT Pure Chiropractic

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