Federal Task Force Pushes PT as an Alternative to Opioids

A report released this week by an inter-agency task force highlights the benefits of physical therapy and other modalities in combatting the opioid crisis.

An inter-agency task force, comprised of 12 public members, nine organization representative members, and eight federal members, released a report this week, entitled Pain Management Best Practices, in an effort to offer updates, gaps, inconsistencies, and recommendations regarding the opioid crisis in relation to managing acute and chronic pain.

The report, which totals 108-pages, emphasizes “patient-centered care in the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic pain,” and features a thorough section regarding the benefits of restorative therapies, such as therapeutic exercise, massage therapy, traction, and more. The report goes on to urge an approach of multimodality, including medications, nerve blocks, physical therapy, and others to combat acute pain conditions, in place of opioids.

As it currently stands, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 50 million adults in the U.S. struggle with the effects of chronic pain on a daily basis, and opioids were involved in 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017—67.8% of all drug overdose deaths.

Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Treating Pain: It is Much More Than “This” vs. “That”

Persistent pain is complex and it is very unlikely that one magic bullet treatment is going to be the sole key to successful outcomes.

from Evidence in Motion

Trying to follow the evidence to determine the best intervention for your patients can be a challenge, especially when it comes to persistent pain. It can be a challenge when you read well-done reviews that seem to have slightly opposite conclusions.

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Disclaimer: The viewpoint expressed in this article is the opinion of the author and is not necessarily the viewpoint of the owners or employees at Healthcare Staffing Innovations, LLC.

Pain: Everything Works, but Nothing is Effective

Treating pain is challenging, but doing what we have always done will not move us to better care with these individuals.

from Evidence in Motion

When treating patients, some therapists love their treatment of choice and share their testimonials of how it works. While other therapists love to bash that treatment of choice and share the research on how that treatment has not been shown to be effective. I don’t even want to begin the laundry list of “tools” in the “toolbox” that PTs seem to pile up course after course when learning to treat their patients in pain. My hope is one day we can move past the methods (tools) of treating an individual in pain and understand the principles that can help. After attending #APTACSM 2017 in San Antonio this year, I continue to wonder if many therapists struggle with how their methods/tools fit into the principles of pain neuroscience.

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