“...patients who visited a chiropractor for a musculoskeletal pain condition were 49 percent less likely to receive an opioid prescription than their counterparts who went to other healthcare providers.”

The findings were presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) 2019 Annual Meeting.

After reviewing available literature on chiropractic use and opioid prescribing, researchers selected six studies with a total of 62,000 patients to include in the analysis.

The research was supported by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development, and the NCMIC Foundation.

The Trump administration in January released a policy to encourage private Medicare Advantage plans, which insure about a third of seniors in the federal health program, to cover non-opioid pain treatment recommended by a doctor. Last fall Congress passed opioid legislation directing the Department of Health and Human Services to review its payment policies so that doctors are not encouraged to prescribe opioids over more conservative options. An estimated 25 million Americans live with chronic pain.

Meanwhile opioid and other drug makers are being sued by states across the U.S., producing thousands of lawsuits and resulting in opioid producers considering bankruptcy under the weight of court cases. Last year the Associated Press reported on “a loose coalition of drugmakers and industry-backed nonprofits” that “adopted a 50-state strategy that includes hundreds of lobbyists and millions in campaign contributions to help kill or weaken measures aimed at stemming the tide of prescription opioids.”

To read the full story on the Yale study go to medscape.com/viewarticle/910617.