About ten years ago, the dangers of misusing opioids became much more well known than they previously were. And then in 2016, the CDC published new guidelines for how opioids should be prescribed. Current research indicates that after these new guidelines were published, the number of prescriptions for nonopioid pain medication drastically increased.
This is good news–if it is helping people. The study didn’t go into details on how effective these alternative prescriptions were. Rather, the team wanted to see if national guidance was having an impact on how doctors viewed these medications.
More than 15 million cases were looked at for this study. After the new guidelines came out, nonopioid pain relief medication increased by 3 percent in 2016. In 2017, it increased by 8 percent. In 2018, that number increased to 9.7 percent.
It indicates that the fight against the opioid epidemic is working. There’s still a long way to go when it comes to treating chronic pain. But it looks like we are making headway when it comes to helping people live better lives free of being hurt by the medications they turn to for help.
As you might be aware, opioids can be very effective at helping to manage pain, but they also come with some pretty heavy side effects. They can be very addictive, leading to people taking them for longer periods of time than they should. And over time, their efficacy begins to wane, which means that those who misuse them are likely to start taking more and more to feel the same way that they did when they first starting taking their medication. Unfortunately, if opioids are misused, there is a high risk of mortality, both from overdose and from long term buildup of the medication. Thanks to this, an epidemic of sorts has been created.
Chronic pain can be completely debilitating. If an older loved one is dealing with this, it’s very important that you work alongside a team of medical professionals to ensure that pain is treated in as safe of a manner as possible.
Having a senior care team on your side can be helpful, too. Pain can make daily tasks like preparing meals, cleaning up, or even getting from room to room can go from a part of life that we don’t spend much time thinking about to something that requires a lot of help if it’s going to be done safely. For some people, family members might be able to help with these things. If that’s the case, awesome! But if a family member can’t help, or the care needs are too intense for family to fully take care of things, there are options.
Paradise In-Home Care might be one of those options for you. We bring the help to your loved one so they don’t need to disrupt their life to stay safe and get the help they need. Whether it’s for a few weeks or longer, in-home care ensures that the daily tasks that need a little bit more assistance with than before are conducted in a smooth way that minimizes the risk of injury or further health problems.
If you’d like to learn more about who we are and what we do, please feel free to get in touch. One of our trained caregivers would be happy to help.
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