This week in wellness an integrative approach may help to decrease the pain and usage in prescription opioid users. With the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) stating that the number of deaths in Australia involving opioids has nearly doubled in the decade to 2016, from 591 to 1119 and AIHW spokesperson Dr Lynelle Moon stating that “Every day in Australia, there are nearly 150 hospitalisations and 14 presentations to emergency departments involving opioid harm, and three people [a day] die from … opioid use,” this is welcome news for an urgent problem.

The study, published Feb. 20, 2019, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, tracked the impact of a program for low-income, at-risk patients with chronic pain at Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. They were offered group support, acupuncture, mindfulness, massage and gentle exercise with the aim of preventing the progression into drug misuse, overdose and ultimately death.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/02/190220133629.htm

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30783878

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/illicit-use-of-drugs/opioid-harm-in-australia/contents/table-of-contents

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2685622