Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Back Care Cut Opioid Use, Costs

A recent study in Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open concluded that adding increased chiropractic and physical therapy coverage and other non drug services to insurance plans gave better outcomes, decreased costs, and reduced opioid use.

Physical Therapy, Chiropractic Back Care Cut Opioid Use, Costs

Teens who get opioids after wisdom tooth extraction may be at risk for addiction, study finds

Dentists are the providers that prescribes the most opiods for children. A new study from JAMA showed that 6% of children from 10 to 19 who were precribed opiods after wisdom tooth extraction went on to be diagosed with opiod abuse within one year. This only occured with .4% in the control group.
Do you see this as an important issue to address?
Teens who get opioids after wisdom tooth extraction may be at risk for addiction, study finds

Alternative treatments for chronic pain without opioids

Missouri Governor Mike Parson recently signed a bill allowing chiropractic care to be covered under Medicaid. Research shows that the Medicaid population is prescribed opioids at a disproportionately high rate compared to the general population and those areas where patients have access to chiropractic have decreased opioid prescription rates.
Do you think it would be beneficial for Illiinois to again cover chiropractic care under Medicaid?Alternative treatments for chronic pain without opioids

Congress Passes Legislation Expanding Veteran Access to Nondrug Chiropractic Services

Congress has approved a plan to expand access to chiropractic’s nondrug approach to pain relief to veterans. This will expand chiropractic services to even more of the VA hospitals to reduce surgeries and opioid prescribing.
Do you think this will be beneficial for veterans?
Congress Passes Legislation Expanding Veteran Access to Nondrug Chiropractic Services

Rep. Ron Kind co-sponsoring bill to provide pain management alternatives including chiropractic car at all VA facilities

As you may have heard, the Tomah VA clinic in Wisconsin has come under intense criticism for an extreme overuse of narcotic drug prescribing to veterans. In response congressman Ron Kind has co-sponsored a bill called the Chiropractic Care Available to All Veteran's Act. It would require chiropractic care and services at all VA medical centers by the end of 2016.
He has said that "We need to be exploring more complimentary, alternative forms of medicine in dealing with pain management for our veterans, instead of just loading them up with a cocktail of pain management drugs, which is really just treating the symptom and not the cause of the pain."

Rep. Ron Kind co-sponsoring bill to provide pain management alternatives at VA facilities

Putting Neck Pain Treatments Into Perspective

Every type of treatment has a risk profile. There has been much fear mongering from some in the medical profession about cervical manipulation. This chart shows the very low risk profile of manipulation compared to common medical procedures. Talk about throwing stones from a glass house!

Putting Neck Pain Treatments Into Perspective

New rules on narcotic painkillers and the Veteran's Administration

Concerning the highly addictive painkillers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has termed this “the worst drug addiction epidemic in the country’s history, killing more people than heroin and crack cocaine.” Pain experts at the Veteran's Administration now say that in hindsight they have been overmedicating veterans.
Here is a statement from the American Chiropractic Association addressing this crisis.
Do you think adding better access to chiropractic care for veterans and the military will help with this problem?

Letter to The Washington Post

This article mentions the new VA chiropractic study that I just wrote about last week.
"VA doctors wrote more than 6.5 million prescriptions in 2012 for hydrocodone, oxycodone, methadone and morphine — more than the total number of patients they saw and a 270 percent increase from 2001. As a result of the numbers, the Minneapolis VA launched the Opioid Safety Initiative in 2012. Since the beginning of the program, the Minneapolis VA says it has been able to decrease risky high-dosage opioid use among patients by 67 percent. The Minneapolis VA, will be collaborating on a study of how chiropractic care might best be used for vets who have a combination of musculoskeletal pain and mental health conditions."
Do you think this new program will be beneficial?

Minneapolis VA studying chiropractic treatment and other alternatives to pain meds

Foundation for Chiropractic Progress Position Paper Responds to Deadly Epidural Steroid Injections, Overuse of Prescription Drugs and Back Surgery to Relieve Back Pain

Foundation for Chiropractic Progress Position Paper Responds to Deadly Epidural Steroid Injections, Overuse of Prescription Drugs and Back Surgery to Relieve Back Pain. The paper also points to overuse of cortisone injections, dangers of ad

diction to prescription drugs such as Methadone and other narcotics for musculoskeletal problems such as back pain and arthritis, as well as mounting evidence that for many patients, surgery is no better at relieving pain than non-invasive care options.

Foundation for Chiropractic Progress Position Paper Responds to Deadly Epidural Steroid Injections, Overuse of Prescription Drugs and Back Surgery to Relieve Back Pain