On a policy basis , as a nation , we have come to the awareness that opioid-based pharmacology cannot be the mainstay of our response to chronic pain . Every agency of consequence in health care in America , from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) to the Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ), has advanced the view that non-pharmacologic approaches to the management of chronic pain should be the first line of response to this need .
This is not to suggest that there is a viable strategy that includes the elimination of opioid type medications from our society . Regrettably , pain will exist at levels that will require very powerful medications , but , most pain patients do not fall into this category .
This change in approach from a primary pharmacologicallybased response to a non-pharmacologic response is unprecedented in American health care . The near universal emphasis on the prescription pad as the answer to America ’ s health needs makes this change of course a daunting one . The perception of pharmacology as science and non-pharmacological approaches as something other than science only serves to reinforce the problem .
Hearing the Unmet Needs of Patients Suffering Chronic Pain | TCLonline . today | 7