Alternative Pain Treatment Directory

  One of the worst emotions pain patients can feel is helplessness. In the face of severe pain, when the medications don’t work, don’t do enough, or cause intolerable side effects, patients can feel helpless to ease their suffering. And helplessness leads to hopelessness and fear, which creates more pain. The good news is that you are not helpless. You can do more to ease your pain than any doctor or pharmaceutical can do for you. What you do every moment of every day in terms of rest, movement, diet, thoughts and more affects your pain levels in many ways. In addition, there are many tools available that can be used safely and effectively for  chronic pain relief, whether you have back pain, neck pain, fibromyalgia, neuropathy, migraines, CRPS, arthritis or any other pain condition. What follows is a list of strategies and tools that can be used at home that are helpful for managing and even eliminating pain. Rest.  This may sound so obvious that it is not even worth men...

  The University of Sydney in Australia recently worked with international experts and consumers to develop the first ever guidelines for opioid deprescribing which aim to minimize harm from inappropriate and abrupt discontinuation while maximizing benefits of reducing opioids for appropriate patients. The guidelines emphasize individualized treatment planning and shared decision-making. Physicians are generally trained on how to prescribe drugs, but rarely receive any guidance on how to take patients off medication that is no longer needed, having unacceptable side effects,  posing unacceptable risks or not working. This is especially important when the drugs, like opioids, cause withdrawal effects when discontinued. Significant harm has been caused by  forced rapid tapering, abrupt cessation or inappropriate denial of prescription opioids . Significant harm has also been caused when effective replacement pain treatment has not been provided. These guidelines seek to cor...