Listening Time — 21:01
The American health care system is grappling with how to safely prescribe opioids. Opioids are a group of drugs that can be key to the successful treatment of severe acute pain. But they also can be dangerous, even deadly, when used long-term for chronic pain.
In an August 17 article for TIME Magazine, Dr. Andre Machado, chairman of the Neurological Institute and the Charles and Christine Carroll Family Endowed Chair of the Cleveland Clinic, compared prescription opioids to an airplane that is easy to get off the ground but difficult to land.
That’s why the Cleveland Clinic is in the midst of a large pilot program for patients with chronic (long-term) pain. As part of the program, prescribed opioids will be considered, but not as the starting point. Instead, the program relies more heavily on physical therapy and mental health therapy, both backed by evidence for the safe long-term management of pain.
In this episode of Move Forward Radio, Dr. Machado and Ian Stephens, a physical therapist participating in the pilot program, discuss how the health care system must adapt in response to America’s opioid epidemic. They also stalk about how the mentality of patients must change — shifting focus from the elimination of pain to the improvement of function.
APTA's #ChoosePT campaign is raising awareness about safe alternatives to opioids for long-term pain management.
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Andre Machado, MD, PhD, is chairman of the Neurological Institute and the Charles and Christine Carroll Family Endowed Chair in Functional Neurosurgery at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. He also is program director for education in Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery, and is full-time staff in the Department of Neurosurgery, with joint appointments in the Department of Neuroscience and the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute. He oversees a large-scale pilot program to analyze the use of physical therapy treatment for chronic back and leg pain, that aims to reduce reliance on opioids and other invasive procedures.
Ian Stephens, PT, DPT, is a physical therapist and board-certified clinical specialist in orthopaedic physical therapy. He is a faculty member for Cleveland Clinic’s orthopaedic physical therapy residency program. His clinical interests include low back pain, neck pain, headache, and chronic pain. He is currently working on a large-scale pilot program to analyze the use of physical therapy treatment for chronic back and leg pain, that aims to reduce reliance on opioids and other invasive procedures.
