Relieving chronic pain with behavioral strategies
Published Friday 28 July 2017
By Kenneth J. Bender, Pharm.D., M.A.
Can primary care physicians change the way they treat patients with chronic pain?
Behavioral strategies that relieve the physical and emotional burdens of chronic pain are becoming more commonplace, not just as alternatives or adjuncts to problematic opioid analgesics, but as effective means to restore daily functioning.
While analgesics can provide welcome relief in acute pain conditions, pain reduction is only temporary and does little to remedy the distress and disabilities that emerge when pain persists.
In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Pain, examining populations in two large health systems, indicated that increasing the dose and duration of opioids for unrelieved chronic pain was associated with worse health outcomes.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318643.php
