the efficacy of physical therapy in reducing and treating pain
Studies have established the efficacy of physical therapy in reducing and treating pain in addition to preventing chronic pain. A good example references the cases of low back pain through exercise therapy to reduce pain, improve function, and return to normalcy. A study that reviewed 35 randomized controlled trials with 30,000 patients found that patients undergoing hip arthroplasty benefits from postoperative education and exercise that led to significant pain reduction, reduced length of stay postoperatively, and improved patient function (Moyer, Ikert, Long & Marsh, 2017). In line with these findings, PTs form an alternative approach to postoperative pain management that would promote a reduced effect of opioid abuse.
Conclusion
The take-home message from this advocacy research paper is that the use of opioids in the management of postoperative and acute pain has led to significant health, financial, and humanitarian effects. The epidemic involving opioid use remains a complex concern that requires multidisciplinary collaboration. Physical therapy emerges as a field with specialists that would offer patients interventions that would control pain as well as address the related causes. The study has also affirmed that non-opioid and non-pharmaceutical therapy is useful in the process of pain management. A change in practice, as the survey shows, would reduce deaths, health care costs, and the high volumes of opioids circulating in the community in addition to protecting patients and their families from opioid misuse, diversion, and abuse.