While pain affects millions of Americans every year - 1 in 4 at any given time, options for safe, effective pain management are lacking in general. This leaves those suffering from acute, chronic, and recurrent pain relying mostly on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which increase risk of potentially fatal gastric lesions, and narcotics, which pose risk of drug dependency.
THE PAIN AFFECTS 1 IN 4 AMERICANS EVERY YEAR
Usually, multiple concurrent treatments are required to treat chronic pain. It is rare that a single medication or treatment provides total relief for the patient suffering from recurrent or long-term pain. For this reason, more and more primary care providers are referring their patients to complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) clinics and providers to complement the treatment they’re able to provide (Institute of Medicine).
Today, there are more visits paid out of pocket to alternative medical providers than there are to primary care providers.