Pain Doctors and Opiates

The publisher pointed out that “State medical boards are now focused on reining in the problem of overprescribing opiates.” In fact, the Washington Department of Health has a Pain Management Statement for pain physicians that states, in the very first sentence, “You must first consider other options before prescribing opiate medication.” This raises the question of how well educated such physicians are in the effective alternatives. In his text, Basics of Acupuncture, Bruce Pomeranz, MD, PhD, major researcher on endorphins, concludes, based on a meta-analysis of the accumulated clinical research studies, that acupuncture is very effective in treating chronic pain, helping from 55% to 85% of patients, compared with placebo (30%–35%) and morphine, which helps in 70% of cases.

Thus it would seem to be a “no-brainer” that if acupuncture is relatively free of side effects and is about as effective as morphine, it should be the treatment of choice for chronic pain. Instead, in my 40 years of experience in the field of natural medicine, I have found that when physicians are unable to prescribe opiates or have had negative effects from medications, they reflexively refer for physical therapy, although it is well known that physical therapy is intended for the rehabilitation phase and, furthermore, research has shown that it is not as effective as acupuncture for pain control. If the issue of “evidence-based medicine” is seriously raised as an objection, consider the following: According to the Office of Technology Assessment of the Department of Commerce, approximately 15% to 20% of medical office practice is based on controlled clinical research studies. Besides, the double-blind experimental model is ideally suited for evaluation of drugs and impossible to verify the effectiveness of physical treatment.

Richard Kitaeff, MA, ND, DipAc, LAc

Director, New Health Medical Center

Pain Specialist, Northwest Hospital

Clinical Affiliate Faculty, Bastyr University