01/05/2024
I'm always proud to serve members of our military and our veterans. National treatment recommendations and national treatment guidelines recommend
non-pharmaceutical chiropractic treatment for both acute and chronic musculoskeletal injuries/conditions. The data supporting chiropractic care is overwhelming!
Most Veterans we treat, improve with both chiropractic and acupuncture treatment. However, Veterans present with chronic permanent pain and dysfunction with documented permanent disabilities, their cases are complicated, their injuries have not reached a pre-injury status, their past treatments include reliance on, prescriptive medications, injections and surgeries. Most all Veterans present with residual musculoskeletal damages which delay the rate of improvement with treatment.
Current Veteran Chiropractic Research, National Treatment Recommendations, and Coalition of 37 Attorneys General September 2017, all recommend non-pharmaceutical chiropractic treatment for both acute and chronic pain and dysfunction. There is no know data which documents that chiropractic utilization can make pain and disability worse.
Veteran/Chiropractic Research summary:
#1. Military personnel who used chiropractic care for the treatment of lower back pain experienced superior outcomes compared to patients who received care from traditional medical providers.
#2. Chiropractic patients reported fewer days away from work or on restricted duty due to their medical condition.
#3. A higher proportion of patients seen by Doctors of Chiropractic reported greater satisfaction with their improvement (and their providers) compared to patients treated by traditional medical providers.
#4. Integrating chiropractic care into the MHS will result in improved access to health care services for military personnel and will lead to the recovery of between 111,000 and 331,000 additional duty days per year.
#5. There is reason to believe that integrating chiropractic care into the MHS will lead to enhanced readiness and increased retention in the military.
#6. Annual net savings to the Department of Defense (DOD) of introducing an open benefit policy for chiropractic care? $25,816,256.59.
#7. Adding chiropractic manipulative therapy to standard medical care for patients with acute low back pain offers a significant advantage for decreasing pain and improving physical functioning when compared with only standard care, for men and women between 18 and 35 years of age with acute LBP.
#8. 73 percent of patients who received standard medical care and chiropractic care rated their pain "completely gone," "much better" or "moderately better." In comparison, only 17 percent of participants who received standard medical care only comparably rated their improvement as high.
#9. Chiropractors have enormously high patient satisfaction rates: 94 percent satisfaction in the Army: Twelve of 19 Air Force bases had 100 percent satisfaction rates: Navy also reported satisfaction ratings at 90 percent or higher: TRICARE outpatient satisfaction surveys rated chiropractors at 88 percent, which was 10 percent "higher than the overall satisfaction with all providers" (78 percent).
#10. Chiropractors returned ADSMs to duty faster.
#11. Patients who received collaborative care that included chiropractic manipulation integrated with usual medical care reported improvement in low back pain intensity and disability compared with those who received standard medical care (medication, physical therapy, pain management) alone.
#12. US Army Service members who receive nondrug therapy, which includes chiropractic and acupuncture treatment, had a"significantly lower" risk of alcohol; or drug disorders, 35% decline in the risk of accidental poisoning from opioid-related narcotics, barbiturates or sedatives, thoughts of su***de and self-inflicted injuries, including su***de attempts.
#13. Non-Pharmaceutical approaches to the management of chronic musculoskeletal pain recommend that the following therapies be implemented across the VA system as a part of pain care: #1. Cognitive behavioral therapy, #2. Acceptance and commitment therapy, #3. Mindfulness based stress reduction, #4. Exercise therapy, #5. Taichi, #6. Yoga, #7. Acupuncture, #8. Manipulation and #9. Massage.
#14. Chiropractic care is more cost effective and can reduce opioid prescribing by 26% per year. The data shows conservative care:Chiropractic/Physical Therapy/Acupuncture can save $230 million dollars in annual medical expenditures.
#15. Nearly one-third of the "Operation Enduring Freedom" (the war in Afghanistan), "Operation Iraqi Freedom," or the Iraq War, Operation New Dawn (aka Operation Iraqi Freedom) Veterans receiving VA chiropractic services also received an opioid prescription, yet the frequency of opioid prescriptions was lower in each of the three 30 day time frames assessed after the index chiropractic visit than before.
National Treatment Recommendations: National treatment guidelines have recommended evidence-based non-drug treatment: full scope chiropractic care before medications. These guidelines provide good support for using chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT), osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT), exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage and yoga, first for pain relief. However, these guidelines have been ignored.
•American College of Physicians Back Treatment Guidelines - The ACP updated prior guidelines, recommending non-drug treatment first for back pain, including chiropractic manipulative therapy (CMT), osteopathic manipulative therapy (OMT), exercise therapy, acupuncture, massage and yoga.
•FDA Education Blueprint for Health Providers Involved in Pain Management: The Blueprint recommends “The [health care provider] should be knowledgeable about which therapies can be used to manage pain and how these should be implemented.” Chiropractic and acupuncture are specifically noted as non-pharmacologic therapies that can play an important role in managing pain.
•Updated Joint Commission Standards for Pain Assessment & Management at Hospitals requires patient education on and access to non-drug pain treatments (effective 1/1/18).
•The CDC released Guidelines for Prescribing Opioidsfor Chronic Pain in 2016. The Guidelines include12 recommendations, the first being, “non-pharmacological therapy and non-opioid pharmacologic therapy are preferred for chronic pain."
Coalition of 37 Attorneys General September 2017: Sent a letter to urge America’s Health Insurance Plans to take steps to encourage members to review payment and coverage policies, revising, if necessary, to encourage health care providers to prioritize non-opioid pain management options instead of opioid prescriptions for treating chronic, non-cancer pain.
•“Nearly 80 percent of he**in users first become addicted through prescription pills,” Beshear said in the release.
“If we can reduce opioid prescriptions and use other forms of pain management treatment, we will slow or even reverse the rate of addiction.”
•Attorney Generals contend incentives promoting use of non-opioid techniques will increase practicality of medical providers considering treatments including physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, manipulative therapy and non-opioid medications, the release said.
•It added that reliance on alternatives will combat a significant factor contributing to the epidemic — the over prescription of opioid painkillers.
• “Strategies such as ongoing education about evidence-based approaches for pain management, knowing the risks involved with the use of opioids, and careful patient monitoring will be key. By working together, doctors, hospitals, health plans, and policy leaders can provide people with better pathways to healing — without putting their lives in danger because of opioids.”
