Opioid Updates: New Death Record, Doctors Still Over-prescribe Opioids, FDA Recommends Education on Chiropractic, Ohio Sues Drug Companies

Opioids continue to kill Ohioans at an alarming rate

Ohio's 2016 opioid overdose numbers are in and it's not pretty. The Columbus Dispatch reports that drug overdose deaths have hit a new record in 2016: 4,149. That's a 30% increase in deaths from an already dismal 2015 that counted 3,050 Ohioans dead. Even worse - county coroners report 2017 is already outpacing 2016.

While Ohio has increased access to overdose antidote medications and is throwing millions at a hunt for new alternative pain medications, nothing is being done to effectively address the real problem - reducing pain without drugs and without surgery that leads to more drugs. When drugs are seen as the answer for every problem, it's easier to stumble down the path to addiction. Research shows those areas with more chiropractic physicians and more chiropractic usage have lower rates of opioid usage. Yet, insurance coverage can often make it cheaper and easier to get pain pills instead of chiropractic care. Share this message with friends and family to help them avoid the worst.

Doctors Still Over-prescribing Opioids For Back Pain

You would think that the mounting rates of addiction and death would encourage doctors to avoid prescribing so many opioids for pain, especially when safer non-drug treatments are recommended by guidelines and readily available. Yet, public radio reports on a survey of medical doctors that found their most common treatment for back pain is OPIOID pain medication!

"When people do go to a doctor, the treatment most commonly recommended to survey participants was prescription painkillers, at 40 percent. That includes opioids, which are overprescribed and have fueled the nation's epidemic of opioid dependence, addiction and overdose deaths...The current advice is stay active and try non-pharmaceutical remedies such as a heating pad first, before even Advil or Aleve, according to clinical guidelines published in April by the American College of Physicians. Those guidelines also said there's evidence of benefits from massage, acupuncture or chiropractic."

FDA Recommends Pain Doctors Learn About Chiropractic

Recognizing health providers' lack of education about chiropractic and appropriate pain management treatments, the Federal Drug Administration released the Education Blueprint for Health Providers Involved in Pain Management. The Blueprint specifically recommends knowledge of chiropractic as an option for pain treatment. Prior recommendations had only generally mentioned non-drug treatment, so this shows another step in the right direction. Until providers consider non-drug options like chiropractic before drugs, it will be difficult to stop the opioid epidemic.

Ohio Attorney General Sues Opioid Drug Manufacturers

The Canton Repository reports Attorney General DeWine stated, "We believe the evidence will show that these companies got thousands of Ohioans - our friends, our family members, our kids - addicted to opioid pain medications, which has all too often led to use the cheaper alternatives of heroin and synthetic opioids." Research shows about 80% of heroin addicts started with prescribed pain medication. Drug companies promoted opioids as non-addictive and great for chronic pain, but as doses increase addiction takes hold and leads to sometimes lethal consequences. It makes sense to force the drug companies to pay for the mess they created, but again, it will do little to help the epidemic until we change the way we treat pain.

We can't wait for the government to figure out how to stop the opioid epidemic. We all need to help educate others about trying non-drug treatment first and save opioids for last.

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