Pain medicine is a recognized medical specialty practiced by doctors on a mission to help relieve chronic pain. One of the more interesting aspects of the specialty is that practitioners do not immediately pull out the prescription pad. And in fact, pain medicine exists because prescription drugs are not the only option for most patients.
Take osteoarthritis. It is one of the most common chronic pain conditions worldwide. Osteoarthritis is a degenerative condition caused by aging joints wearing down and losing their cartilage. Nearly every adult will experience it to some degree.
How do doctors typically treat osteoarthritis? With nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). These are drugs designed to reduce inflammation. Unfortunately, reducing inflammation does not fix the effected joint. More importantly, long-term NSAID use could lead to some serious complications.
Other Ways to Treat Osteoarthritis
There are other ways to treat osteoarthritis without having to turn to drugs. A recently released study out of China shows that a combination of alternative treatments can work just as well as prescription medications, if not better.
Researchers from the First People’s Hospital of Neijiang took a look at 139 trials and 12 non-drug therapies for osteoarthritis in the knee. Their meta-analysis utilized a study method that enabled them to combine the results of all the trials for a big-picture view.
The trials involved nearly 10,000 patients who relied on everything from knee braces to hydrotherapy to deal with knee pain. Researchers determined that the non-drug therapies work just as well as NSAIDs in most patients. Some of the therapies worked better than prescription medications.
PRP Injections Are an Option
Here in the States, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections are another option for osteoarthritis. The pain medicine doctors at Lone Star Pain Medicine say that PRP treatments are designed to promote natural healing through the use of concentrated platelets and growth factors. Lone Star offers PRP injections in their Weatherford, TX clinic.
Lone Star doctors are pain medicine specialists. So if PRP therapy is either inappropriate or does not offer sufficient relief, they have other non-drug treatments they can look at. This is not a say that they never write prescriptions. But it is to say that they do not rely exclusively on prescription medications to help patients feel better. And that is the point.
Drugs Have Problems of Their Own
One of the fundamental principles of pain medicine is the restoration of both function and quality of life. By reducing pain, doctors help restore function. And when function is restored, quality of life increases.
What does this have to do with prescription drugs? The unfortunate truth is that drugs come with problems of their own. If you have ever seen TV commercials for prescription medications, you know the reality of the situation. Most prescription drugs come with a lengthy list of potential side effects that could affect function and quality of life.
Two of the potential risks of long-term NSAID use are heart attack and stroke. A third is kidney damage. So while the drugs might relieve osteoarthritis pain, a serious side effect could ruin a patient’s quality of life down the road. Why take that chance if non-drug therapies work as good as prescription NSAIDs?
The Least Harm Possible
It seems to me that the underlying philosophy of pain medicine is to help patients find pain relief with the least harm possible. If that means choosing an alternative therapy rather than recommending prescription medications, so be it. If there is one thing the pain medicine specialty has demonstrated, it is the fact that drugs are not the only option.
