Satterwhite 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 ignored. Primary care physicians aren’t very confident in treating musculoskeletal pain. (1) Family practitioners are the leading prescribers of opioids. (2) Meanwhile, who treats 40% of pain patients? Chiropractors! (1) Your Oxford chiropractor at Satterwhite Chiropractic takes care of many pain patients and relieves a lot of Oxford back pain often with no opioids.

STATISTICS ON OPIOIDS FOR PAIN

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

• 40.4% of pain patients accepted opioid prescriptions for the first time within a 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 look for care from emergency medicine doctors (43.1%) or urgent care facility (40.8%) are most certainly to be prescribed opiates early in their pain cycle.
• Patients diagnosed initially 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.

Satterwhite Chiropractic invites pain patients to seek Oxford chiropractic care first!

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 probable physicians to feel confident treating musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain. (1) Chiropractors like yours at Satterwhite Chiropractic confidently use non-drug management and/or co-management with other healthcare personnel for the pain relief and pain control for Oxford back pain patients.

CHIROPRACTIC’S PLACE IN PAIN CARE

Satterwhite Chiropractic speculates why chiropractors are not more immediately considered in the process for Oxford pain relief, especially Oxford back pain relief. Chiropractic services intergrate 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 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 shares that patients think their medical doctor understands nutrition. (4) And that is ok if healthcare professionals coordinated care 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 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 influences his/her treatment recommendations, guidelines for Oxford back pain patient care are developed to try to utilize the expertise maximally. 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 aligned with guidelines; physiotherapists recommended much more activity but less work activity than physicians. (5) Satterwhite Chiropractic works with other local Oxford healthcare providers for patient care, appreciating their expertise and involvement in Oxford back pain patients’ return to activities that they like to do.

CONTACT Satterwhite Chiropractic

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