Lower Opioid Usage with Chiropractic Among People with Back or Neck Pain

The Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics released the results of a study on October 1, 2022, showing that people under chiropractic care utilize and are prescribed less opioids for their pain. The title of the study is, "Association Between Chiropractic Utilization and Opioid Prescriptions Among People with Back or Neck Pain."

The study begins by pointing out that a third of the population in the United States has experienced back pain in the past three months. In 2016, a study reviewing insurance claims showed that one in five of all new lower back pain cases seeking medical care were prescribed opioids within 30 days of their initial complaint.

The study also reported that in 2017, clinical practice guidelines recommended that "opioids should be considered only in patients for whom other therapies have failed because they are associated with substantial harms." Even with these guidelines, in 2020 there were 16,416 overdose deaths involving prescription opioids.

In this study, researchers at Life Chiropractic College West reviewed data from multiple studies to see if there was a change in the frequency of usage if opioid drugs in patients who were under chiropractic care and medical care, as opposed to those who were only under medical care.

The studies included 4686 people who had experienced lower back or neck pain. Of these people, the data showed that 21% were prescribed and utilized an opioid prescription.

The data was further examined to see the rate of opioid usage for those who received chiropractic care. The researchers then compared the rate of opioid usage verses the total group. The data showed that people with back or neck pain who sought chiropractic care had a 54% less probability of purchasing or receiving an opioid prescription for their condition than those that did not utilize chiropractic.

One of the studies that the researchers used for gathering data for this study showed that those who utilized chiropractic care had a significant decrease in overall health expenses verses those who used opioids. That study showed that "Medicare patients who initiated long-term management of chronic low back pain with opioids had twice the Medicare charges in a 4-year study period compared to those who initiated chronic low back pain management with spinal manipulation therapy, typically provided by Doctors of Chiropractic."

In their conclusion, the authors of this study stated the obvious by saying, "Patients with back or neck pain who saw a chiropractor had approximately half the odds of reporting an opioid prescription compared to those who did not see a chiropractor."

Considering the expense both financially, as well as human suffering and death, chiropractic should be considered first before opioids are prescribed or administered when it comes to low back and neck pain.