Can you treat back pain without drugs?

Back pain is a major and expensive public health problem. It is the leading cause of time off work and ranks number one in workers compensation claims. Major studies show the treatment of choice for mechanical back pain is chiropractic manipulative therapy - prior to the use of conventional medical care. That's because drug treatment doesn’t help improve back pain. In fact, leading medical authorities do not recommend opioid drugs for low back pain. In fact, these drugs are dangerous due to their addictive nature and serious side effects. So what's the alternative?

Chiropractors employ a natural approach to health. There is certainly a place for drugs and surgery, but often they are overused. A serious problem with opiate medication is recognized around the world. The US Centers for Disease Control issued new guidelines to physicians to reduce opioid prescriptions, stating “the risks are addiction and death, and the benefits are unproven." Prescription medicines are related to almost 70 per cent of all drug-related deaths in Western Australia between 2004 and 2014.

Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2016 reported recently that a total of 149 people died from accidental drug overdose in WA in 2014 compared with 35 in 2004. Benzodiazepines - sleeping pills or tranquillisers - and opioids (oxycodone, morphine and codeine) were the drugs most often associated with accidental overdoses. In 2014, these drugs were involved in 672 and 568 deaths respectively nationwide in 2014.

Clearly, we need to address the back pain epidemic with a drug-free approach. A recent study in the US has shown that chiropractic manipulative therapy and home exercise and advice gets much better results with back and neck pain than medical management alone. In fact, none of the 182 patients in the chiropractic or exercise treated groups took opioids. But 80 out of 90 in the medication group were prescribed – and took – opioids. The facts are clear – prescription opiate drugs are not recommended for the treatment of back or neck pain.

If that's the case, let us reassure you, the benefits of Chiropractic Care are appreciated by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. So contact us to see how you can treat back pain without drugs. At Burswood Health, we're a team of multi-disciplinary therapists and we build on decades of experience helping people like you, who want to have a better quality of life, reduce pain, and lead a life without the dangers or side-effects of drugs.