Opiods Not Helpful for Chronic Pain

Opiods are an extremely potent drug prescribed for pain relief. Opiods are in the news daily due to their highly addictive qualities. People are being prescribed opiods for pain and becoming addicted to the "feel good" quality associated with it's use. Frequent use of opiods can be lethal and since the rate of addiction is on a record high, we have an opiod use crisis. What makes this crisis even more maddening is a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that opioids are not an effective solution for chronic pain.

The paper published from University of Minnesota studied 240 patients who had chronic back, hip, or knee arthritis pain. Half of the study subjects received opiates; the other half received non-opiate pain medications. Patient progress was evaluated at 3-months, 6-months, 9-months, and one year. The study found there was no difference in pain-related function between the two groups.  At 12 months, the nonopioid patients had less pain than did those who received opiates. “The opioid group had significantly more medication-related symptoms over 12 months than the nonopioid group. Among patients with chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain, treatment with opioids compared with nonopioid medications did not result in significantly better pain-related function over 12 months.  To help fight the opiod crisis, researchers are turning to holistic health care professions, such as chiropractic.  Patients who are under care by the chiropractor as less likely to use opiod medications for pain. Chiropractic  works to relieve pain by aligning structure, removing neural impulse pressure and reducing friction on the boney joint surfaces. The patient satisfaction rate in the chiropractor's office is extremely high.

Krebs EE, Gravely A, Nugent S, Jensen AC, DeRonne B, Goldsmith ES, Kroenke K, Bair MJ, Noorbaloochi S. Effect of Opioid vs Nonopioid Medications on Pain-Related Function in Patients With Chronic Back Pain or Hip or Knee Osteoarthritis Pain: The SPACE Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2018 Mar 6;319(9):872-882. doi: 10.1001/jama.2018.0899.

Author

Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.