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.

‘Insurers should incentivize patients to see chiropractors or physical therapists first for low back pain before seeing primary care physicians to reduce the risk of short and long-term opioid use. ’

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