Every year the APTA (American Physical Therapy Association) determines a topic to highlight for the month of October bringing awareness to health related issues. These topics range from the impact of your Physical Therapist to #agingwell to stressing the importance of movement. For 2016 campaign, the APTA is focusing on the drug epidemic of opioid use and using PT as a safe alternative to managing pain.

The statistics regarding drug use are staggering. According to the APTA website, opioid use has been on the rise since 1999. This includes drugs like Percocet, Vicodin, methodone and. OxyContin which can be gateway drugs to heroin. The CDC has issued a recommendation to encourage the use of physical therapy for pain management over opioid drugs in an effort to decrease this epidemic. The goal is not to mask the pain but to deal directly with the pain when we are able.

Did you know:

  • As many as 1 in 4 people who receive prescription opioids long-term for non- cancer  pain struggle with addiction
  • Every day, more than 1,000 people are treated in emergency departments for misusing prescription opioids
  • People who are addicted to prescription opioids are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin
  • 78 people die every day from an opioid-related overdoses

The APTA is focusing to help raise awareness this month with their #ChoosePT campaign. It is a comprehension initiative to help make physical therapy a safe alternative. Part of their campaign is improving access for patients with policy solutions like repealing the Medicare Cap, providing fair co-payments and protecting patient choice.

The APTA is also providing informational resources for patients and therapists at moveforwardpt.com. This information is research based and designed to help the consumer and therapist understand the importance of alternatives to dealing with pain. Did you know that early intervention with physical therapy for low back pain actually lowers health care costs as compared to imaging? Also opioid use beyond 30 days has a increased risk of causing depression? Many additional resources with print outs are located here as well as a comprehensive pain scale and patient stories.

We understand as therapist that pain can be debilitating so helping to restore motion and improving quality of movement often will help to decrease pain. Pain has many presentations of severity from the athlete who has an overuse syndrome to a patient with a chronic disorder that has had multiple surgeries. Whatever the cause, it is important to assess and treat the individual and not purely the diagnosis.

We at SetPT are proud to be members of the APTA and believe that #ChoosePT is great solution to opioid addiction and dealing with pain.