American College of Physicians Recommends Chiropractic For Back Pain, Not Opioids

Avoid opioid addiction with chiropractic

The American College of Physicians (ACP) released the latest guidelines recommending non-drug treatment like chiropractic over opioids and other medications. These guidelines emphasized non-drug treatments to be used first for back pain or injury rather than more commonly used medications, and especially before opioids.

One Ohio Injured Worker dies each week from drugs

With the opioid epidemic raging in Ohio and around the country, the Institute of Medicine (IOM), Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and Center for Disease Control (CDC) have all recommended non-drug treatments to be used to treat pain instead of opioids to end the drug abuse and addiction. More recent studies have even found opioids to be less effective for pain that once believed. This combination of limited benefit and high risk of addiction has lead to an epidemic of overdose deaths around the country, with Ohio as "ground zero."

Try non-drug treatment like chiropractic first for pain

Based on current research, ACP Guidelines note that chiropractic manipulation, exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage, and heat therapy are all preferred treatments that should be tried first before medications. Most back pain will improve well with these measures. The few cases that don't respond may try medications, but injections and surgery is not recommended by the guidelines due to limited benefit for most patients and high risks. Opioids are noted as a last resort that should only be used in addition to non-drug treatment; never used alone.

It won't be easy to change decades of physician and patient habits, reaching for medication first for pain, but this is a step in the right direction. More and more medical guidelines recommend a trial of conservative non-drug treatment like chiropractic first for back pain. This trial should last at least 6 weeks and only emergency cases (severe pain is not an emergency) should consider more invasive treatment or advanced imaging. Next time you're hurting, start with chiropractic or other non-drug treatment first.

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