People around the world are experiencing more and more pain
As we age and limit our physical activity, our bodies tend to tighten up and become painful when used. Pain management is a growing industry as more and more people experience pain. Pain management used to really be a thing for chronic pain, which is the persistence of pain for longer than a normal healing period. Typically chronic pain last for a minimum of three months and in some cases become debilitating. Chronic pain is usually associated with an underlying medical condition such as arthritis. Among the Australian community, one in every five Australians are living with chronic pain. Chronic pain is one of Australia’s most common reasons for people visiting the doctor. The more common types of chronic pain are back pain, joint pains and headaches. Chronic pain has been seen to affect people among all age groups but it is particularly common among people aged 65 and older, occurring at a rate of one on every three people among that age group. Chronic pain is disturbing in a sense it can interfere with the day to day task that a person must perform to get by throughout the day, such things as simple as walking.
The more people experience chronic pain and seek treatment, the more we learn about how to manage and treat pain in general
Chronic pain does not always have a cure; therefore it is important that the pain is managed to give the best quality of life. Due to the chronic pain issue in Australia, it cost about 73.2 million of a financial burden. This financial burden includes attributes such as loss of productivity, informal health care and direct cost to the health care system. Among the Australian natives living with chronic pain, about 56 percent of them state that they have daily life restrictions and of those people 70 percent of them were of the working age group. The vital part with living with chronic paint is managing the pain. Typically, the pain is managed with prescription drugs.
These prescription drugs have created an opioid crisis in Australia
It has been easier for general practitioners to prescribe an opioid to manage pain as people are in agreement with this option and it is very easy to prescribe. In efforts to try and cut down on the over prescribing and overuse of opioid drugs to treat pain commissioners are considering implementing a pain management program that would better train general practitioners on treating pain and how to effectively manage it. It is estimated that it will cost about 45 million dollars to implement such a program and train but it is thought that it would save around 200 million in the cost associated with overdoses. With people experiencing pain and attempting to manage the pain through the use of opioids, the prognosis is not promising as opioids are very additive. Opioids are generally supposed to be prescribed in extreme cases to manage pain but we are seeing that opioids are being prescribed to people with mild pain cases. This greatly increases the chance of a person experiencing an overdose.
Currently Australia has a significant rate of overdose deaths due to the overprescribing of opioids to manage pain
The cause of these deaths are heavily related to the prescription opioid overuse. Opioid addiction and overuse is something that continues to increase among all age groups but especially the younger adults. With this in mind, Australia is hoping to implement three projects in a four year timeframe that would target consumer awareness and education for people on effectively managing their pain. To help with pain management, people must also consider the physical activity approach. If people are constantly lying in bed and not being mobile, then they will not see an improvement with their pain even if prescription drugs are used. Along with the education and awareness approach, people must understand the benefits of staying active outside of over the counter drugs to manage their pain. The pain management industry has created a dependency among people on prescription opioids; with a different medical approach, officials are wondering if they can change the additive minds to a better way of preventing pain.