Chronic pain is something I am very familiar with. Although I do not experience it myself, several people very close to me do. Unfortunately, they all rely almost exclusively on prescription painkillers to get through the day. That troubles me.
Every time I see a TV commercial for a prescription drug, I am reminded just how pill-happy modern culture is. We have pills for virtually everything that ails us. We even have pills for things that merely make us uncomfortable. But is popping so many pills a wise idea? I’m not so sure.
Prescription painkillers come with plenty of side effects. The potential for abuse and addiction are two of the most severe. So for me, it’s better to find other ways to manage pain. I have done just that for episodes of severe acute pain. I plan to do the same should I ever find myself in a chronic pain situation.
Still Writing Prescriptions
What we refer to as the opioid crisis began in earnest back in the 1990s, when Big Pharma began encouraging doctors to write prescriptions for new opioid medications. Doctors gladly obliged. It’s what they do. They have learned to treat patients mainly with pharmacology. So of course they will prescribe a new drug that passes the FDA sniff test.
That much does not surprise me. The surprising thing is that some 30 years later, with all we know about prescription painkillers, doctors are still prescribing them so readily. According to the CDC, some 130 million opioid prescriptions were written in 2022 alone. I am amazed by that number.
We are never going to get a handle on the opioid crisis if we do not drastically reduce the number of prescription opioids in circulation. As long as we continue writing prescriptions, we will continue struggling against opioid addiction, abuse, and deaths.
Other Ways to Treat Pain
In fairness, opioid prescriptions don’t tend to be a first line of treatment against acute and chronic pain. But they often are not the last, either. A doctor might recommend OTC pain relievers to start with, then graduate to prescription NSAIDs before landing on opioids. So perhaps the real root of the problem is such a heavy dependency on pharmacology.
Maybe pharmacology isn’t the right way to go. And even if it is appropriate, perhaps pharmacology should be combined with other disciplines so that patients aren’t relying exclusively on painkillers.
Utah’s KindlyMD clinics take an integrative approach to pain management. Their treatments include a number of complementary options including plant-based medicines, mental health counseling, physical and occupational therapy, and more. KindlyMD clinicians are not afraid to write prescriptions when they believe pharmacology is appropriate.
The Least Amount of Harm
Regardless of whether a clinic relies on an integrative approach to pain management, treating a patient with the least amount of potential harm should be the number one priority. And when that is the case, prescription opioids fall further down the list of treatments.
It is true that plant-based medicines do not always work to manage pain consistently. It is also true that OTC pain relievers, physical and occupational therapy, and surgeries don’t always produce the desired results. But the failures of some traditional treatments are by no means an excuse to continue dispensing so many opioids. Especially since opioids don’t work for every patient, either.
My personal opinion is that opioid painkillers should be the last treatment option on the list. Knowing what we know about opioids, I would rather try all the other options first. If nothing else provides adequate relief, only then would I consider an opioid prescription.
