Is it possible to manage pain well without opioids?
In chronic pain management, there are different types of pain clinics. Among others, there are two that seem almost diametrically opposed in their treatment of patients – even for patients with the same chronic pain conditions. One type of pain clinic is the chronic opioid management clinic. These types of clinics start chronic pain patients on opioids or take over the prescribing of the medications from other providers and subsequently maintain patients on chronic opioid management indefinitely. The other type of pain clinic is the interdisciplinary chronic pain rehabilitation program. They admit the same kinds of chronic pain patients and, instead of maintaining them on chronic opioid management, they taper opioids while teaching patients how to successfully self-manage pain.