Physical Therapist or Chiropractor Visit for Back Pain may Decrease Opioid Use

Seeing a chiropractor or physical therapist first for lower back pain rather than a primary care physician may reduce opioid prescriptions, reports a new study. For the research, the team looked at commercial insurance, and Medicare Advantage claims data from the OptumLabs database for 216,504 adults who were diagnosed with new-onset low back pain between 2008 and 2013 and had not been prescribed opioids before.

For the analysis, the researchers controlled as many socio-demographic, geographical, and medical history factors as they could get from the insurance claims data.

According to the study, published in BMJ Open, patients who first saw a PCP for low back pain were 79 percent more likely to use prescription opioids than patients who first visited a chiropractor and 71 percent more likely than those who first went to a physical therapist.

The researchers also found patients in states with provisional or unrestricted access to physical therapy were much more likely to see a physical therapist first than patients in states with limited physical therapy access.

Source-IANS