Removing Opioids Care Pathways in Patients With Lower Back Pain
Chiropractic care has many different forward-thinking concepts that are not aligned with current attitudes and perceptions in medicine. A main concept of chiropractic care is the focus on prevention rather than treatment. Specifically, the discipline of chiropractic care is framed around preventing injury and illness. By putting the body in a position where injury and illness will not develop rather than simply treating conditions when they arise, there are many benefits.
An element of this preventative focus is rooted in pain management. If a patient is experiencing pain and discomfort from a certain musculoskeletal condition, the chiropractor is tasked with putting the spine the proper position to avoid further deterioration of the musculoskeletal system’s health.
Rather than using pharmaceutical medications to mediate pain, the chiropractor adjusts the patient’s spine as a way of preventing pain in the first place. One of the most common pharmaceutical medications in pain management is the opioid and in 2015, this medication presents significant danger,
An opioid is a chemical compound that mimics the effects of opiates in the body. This includes morphine, codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and many more. The musculoskeletal system is one of the main targets of opioids, as there are numerous opioid receptors throughout the nerves lining the spine and other bones.
The traditional care pathway for lower back pain might involve prescribing opioids to manage the pain, which only limits the amount of pain experienced in the patient for a certain period of time rather than changing anything potential causes of the lower back pain. In the chiropractic care pathway, opioids are never an option and chiropractic professionals will find a way to attack the lower back pain at the root cause.
Various different research studies have also concluded that opioids are extremely addictive. Opioids’ effectiveness in treating pain varies, and some patients need to consume high amounts of these medications, which can lead to addiction in a small time period. Rather than risking opioid addiction, chiropractic professionals urge patients with lower back pain to seek chiropractic care and prevent pain altogether.
Used under Creative Commons Licensing courtesy of Damian Gadal