Last year my wife and I sat down and watched an HBO documentary titled ‘Warning: This Drug May Kill You.’ Its an eye opener to say the least and not for the feint hearted. It revolves around the ongoing opioid crisis in America and the impact opioid abuse is having on the population. Experts in another short clip outline the complex problem at hand and possible solutions.
Some positive findings in a recent study published in The Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine has shown that patients receiving chiropractic care for non-cancer low-back pain had a 55% less likelihood of filling a prescription for an opioid analgesic than those not receiving chiropractic care. The study was done in New Hampshire which has the second highest age-adjusted rate of drug overdose deaths in the United States – scary stat! Although the research is based on stats received by the Department of Health and Human Services of the State of New Hampshire they don’t tell us anything in terms of treatment modalities, frequency of visits or any other information related to what the patient received from the chiropractor during the consultation. There are many possible reasons for the positive findings but mentioning any would be purely speculative. The promising fact is that people receiving care seemed to take less opioids.
“The preponderance of health outcomes result not from clinical interventions, but from personal health behaviours, as well as social and environmental determinants of health. Finally, it is unknown to what extent the effect of exposure to utilisation of services provided by doctors of chiropractic may be modified by various aspects of care, including spinal manipulation and other treatments, the chiropractor’s recommendations regarding diet and exercise and other influences associated with chiropractic care.”
One thing to remember, as with all research, is that this study was done on a very select group of individuals in the United States and further research would need to be carried out in other populations across the world to test the generalisability of these results.
Another note.
Pain is complicated and its not as simple as input equals output. There are so many factors at play in determining a persons pain and it really is in looking at the PERSON that we can start to unravel the web of contributors to their pain experience. Its a fascinating world and one which modern day health care is really battling to come to terms with.
