Opioid Pain Management Near Me
The Six Essentials Elements of Good Opioid Pain Management
1. Educate Veterans/families to promote self-efficacy and shared decision making; provide access to all relevant resources
2. Educate/train all team members to their discipline specific competencies, including team based care
3. Develop and integrate non-pharmacological modalities into care plans
4. Institute evidence based medication prescribing, use of pain procedures and safe opioid use (universal precautions)
5. Implement approaches for bringing the Veteran’s whole team together such as virtual pain consulting (SCAN-ECHO, e-consults, tele-health, clinical video tele-consultation and education) and for maintaining ongoing communication between team members
6. Establish metrics to monitor pain care and outcomes at both the individual level and the population level
NEW online training course provides practical advice for helping complex patients who do not respond to standard medical treatments. Continuing medical education credit is available.
See the “latest” Veterans/Public – Complementary And Integrative Health section about Home Practice Exercises.
− Yoga/Tai Chi
− Physical Activity – Physical Therapy & Chair Exercises
− Acupressure
Visit the CBT-CP section to learn how it can be used as an effective treatment for reducing the negative impacts of chronic pain.
− CBT-CP for Veterans
− CBT-CP for Providers
Visit the CBT-CP section to learn how it can be used as an effective treatment for reducing the negative impacts of chronic pain.
− CBT-CP for Veterans
− CBT-CP for Providers
Nonopioid Therapies for Pain Management
All patients should receive treatment for pain that provides the greatest benefits relative to risks.
Use of nonpharmacologic and nonopioid pharmacologic therapies should be maximized as appropriate because they do not carry the same risks as opioids.
The 2022 CDC Clinical Practice Guideline for Prescribing Opioids for Pain (2022 Clinical Practice Guideline) has expanded guidance on evidence-based nonopioid options for pain.
Opioids are indispensable for the treatment of severe short-lived pain during acute painful events and at the end of life (e.g., pain associated with cancer). Currently, no other oral medication offers immediate and effective relief of severe pain. Although opioids can be highly addictive, opioid addiction rarely emerges when opioids are used for short-term treatment of pain, except among a few highly susceptible individuals. For these reasons, IASP supports the use and availability of opioids at all ages for the relief of severe pain during short-lived painful events and at the end of life. IASP’s 2010 Declaration of Montreal states that access to pain management is a fundamental human right. In some cases, there is no substitute for opioids in achieving satisfactory pain relief.
Despite this stated value of opioids, the role of opioids in the treatment of chronic pain has come into question. Recent open-ended and indiscriminate long-term prescribing of opioids in the United States and Canada has led to high rates of prescription opioid abuse, unacceptable death rates, and an enormous burden to the affected societies. This burden has been a consequence largely of opioid prescribing for the treatment of chronic pain, where long-term effectiveness is uncertain and where harms, especially for high doses, are clear and strongly supported by cautionary data from the affected countries. Such harms include, but are not limited to, addiction and death. Increased prescribing for chronic pain is occurring in some other developed nations, while the developing world continues to struggle with lack of opioid availability for appropriate indications.