If I’m Safer Staying Off Opioids, What Alternatives for Pain Are There?
The opioid crisis has many doctors and patients looking for less addictive pain remedies.
By Elaine K. Howley, Contributor Nov. 5, 2018, at 9:57 a.m.
News of the growing opioid crisis has become inescapable. Daily reports of lives ruined and lives lost to opioids dominate headlines – with addictions that started with a legitimate prescription for pain killers being an oft-cited reason for the downward spiral into overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that “from 1999 to 2016, more than 200,000 people died in the United States from overdoses related to prescription opioids. Overdose deaths involving prescription opioids were five times higher in 2016 than in 1999.â€
Why exactly is a complicated question, but it often starts with acute pain and the need for relief. Acute pain is a relatively common problem that can result from any number of illnesses, injury, surgical procedures and labor or it can seemingly come completely out of the blue. Acute pain can be debilitating, but by definition, it doesn’t last very long. Chronic pain is the term used to describe pain that lasts longer than three months.
https://health.usnews.com/health-care/patient-advice/articles/2018-11-05/if-im-safer-staying-off-opioids-what-alternatives-for-pain-are-there
