Almost anytime you turn on the news or check social media, you’ll discover that drug addiction and overdose deaths continue to be a major problem in the United States. By the end of 2018, over 67,000 Americans lost their lives due to a drug overdose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the highest increase in overdose rates was among synthetic opioids with over 31,000 deaths attributed to fentanyl and fentanyl analogs.
Prescription opioid medications, such as hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, and oxycodone, benefit many people dealing with various pain conditions. However; opioids are often over-prescribed by healthcare professionals, leading to various health problems including drug misuse, drug overdose, and opioid use disorder.
While illicit street drugs are a growing problem (the number of deaths attributed to any opioid in 2018 was 46,802), almost 15,000 of those deaths involved prescription pain medication opioids.
Why Doctors Prescribe Opioids
Prescription opioids are prescribed by doctors to treat severe pain, such as the pain you experience after a major surgical procedure or pain that is the result of a broken bone. Opioids are also used to treat people dealing with the pain of a terminal illness such as cancer.
One of the top reasons opioids are prescribed by healthcare professionals is to help people dealing with the discomfort of chronic pain. Chronic pain refers to the discomfort that lasts for 3 to 6 months or longer, unlike acute pain that usually only lasts a few days or weeks and goes away after you recover from an injury. Chronic pain is debilitating for many people and can affect your overall quality of life.
The Problems of Over-Prescribing Pain Meds
While many prescription medications provide pain relief at first, opiates should not be a long-term solution, as treatment-resistant pain is a major cause of the growing opioid epidemic. This drug tolerance results in your needing more of the medication to bring relief to your symptoms – either by taking your meds more often than prescribed or in higher doses than prescribed.
This overuse of your medications can lead to dependence on the drugs, unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when you stop taking your prescriptions, overdoses, and in extreme cases—death. Instead of taking ever-higher doses of opiates, you may want to research your options for more holistic, less harmful ways of managing your pain.
To get you back on track to living your best life, Midsouth Pain offers a variety of expert healthcare solutions to help detect the root cause of whatever problems are causing your pain.
Alternative Pain Treatment Methods
While many healthcare providers are quick to prescribe a pill for your pain, due to unwanted side effects such as developing drug dependence, there is a good argument for looking at non-opioid pain management methods.
Some of the alternative non-opiate pain treatment methods to consider, when you are trying to manage your pain include:
- Nerve blocks
- Epidural steroid injections
- Yoga and Tai Chi
- Walking, cycling, jogging, swimming, and strength training
- Cold or heat therapy
- Eastern medicine, i.e. Chinese herbal medicine
- Physical therapy
- Massage therapy
- Biofeedback
- Hypnosis
- Meditation
- Acupuncture
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy
- Chiropractic adjustments
- Topical sprays, creams, lotions, and ointments
Many people find temporary pain relief using over the counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen. However; long-term use of these non-prescription medications is associated with a host of unpleasant side effects including kidney damage, high blood pressure, allergic reactions and stomach problems.
The good news is, you don’t have to live with your pain. Reach out to a pain management center, such as the medical professionals at Midsouth Pain to discover the current treatment options we are using to bring rapid pain relief to our patients.
Pain Management Solutions at Midsouth Pain Treatment Center
We understand that pain is different for each of our patients and fixing the problem is our goal at Midsouth Pain. Our treatments include back pain, headaches, failed back surgery, hip and leg pain, neck and shoulder pain, hand and foot pain and more.
Read a recent review from one of our many satisfied patients, “I have been suffering from back pain for 20 years. Midsouth Pain helped me get my pain under control without becoming addicted to painkillers. The clinical staff has been a wonderful blessing!”
We will help identify the cause of your pain, identify the solution to help bring relief to your pain and plan treatment accordingly. Reach out to our caring medical staff to schedule an appointment in one of our branches near you in Tennessee or Mississippi.
Call us today to experience our excellent customer service and comprehensive patient care: 866-707-1942.