Abstract
The failure of past practices and policies related to opioid prescribing for chronic
pain has led federal agencies and professional organizations to recommend multimodal
approaches that prioritize evidence-based nonpharmacological pain treatments (NPTs).
These multimodal approaches, which include both traditional and complementary/integrative
approaches, hold great promise for reducing the burden of chronic pain and reducing
opioid use. Unfortunately, NPT approaches are underutilized due to a daunting array
of interrelated barriers including the public's attitudes and beliefs about chronic
pain and its treatment. Given the dual crises of chronic pain and opioid use, there
is a critical need for a national public health campaign on chronic pain and its treatment
to help educate the American public about NPT pain management options, while countering
the misleading messages promulgated by the pharmaceutical industry, including but
not limited to messages promoting the broad use of prescription opioids and minimizing
its risks. Despite these dual crises of chronic pain and opioid use in the U.S., there
has never been a concerted effort to broadly educate the American public about these
issues and NPT pain management options.
Key Words
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to The Journal of PainAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Can beliefs about musculoskeletal pain and work be changed at the national level? Prospective evaluation of the Danish national Job & Body campaign.Scand J Work Environ Health. 2018; 44: 25-36
- Barriers and facilitators to chronic pain self-management: a qualitative study of primary care patients with comorbid musculoskeletal pain and depression.Pain Med. 2009; 10: 1280-1290
- Intensity of chronic pain—the wrong metric.N Engl J Med. 2015; 373: 2098-2099
- A research agenda for advancing non-pharmacological management of chronic musculoskeletal pain: findings from a VHA State-of-the-art conference.J Gen Intern Med. 2018; 33: 11-15
- Opioid prescribing in the United States before and after the centers for disease control and prevention's 2016 opioid guideline.Ann. Intern. Med. 2018; 169: 367-375
- Understanding the characteristics of effective mass media campaigns for back pain and methodological challenges in evaluating their effects.Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2008; 33: 74-80
- Opioids for chronic noncancer pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis.JAMA. 2018; 320: 2448-2460
- Reducing harm through litigation against opioid manufacturers? lessons from the tobacco wars.Public Health Rep. 2018; 133: 207-213
- Problems of quality and equity in pain management: exploring the role of biomedical culture.Pain Med. 2009; 10: 1312-1324
- Backstories on the US opioid epidemic. good intentions gone bad, an industry gone rogue, and watch dogs gone to sleep.Am J Med. 2018; 131: 595-601
- CDC guideline for prescribing opioids for chronic pain - United States, 2016.MMWR Recomm Rep. 2016; 65: 1-49
- Naproxen with cyclobenzaprine, oxycodone/acetaminophen, or placebo for treating acute low back pain: a randomized clinical trial.JAMA. 2015; 314: 1572-1580
- The biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain: scientific advances and future directions.Psychol Bull. 2007; 4: 581-624
- Research agenda for the prevention of pain and its impact: report of the work group on the prevention of acute and chronic pain of the federal pain research strategy.J Pain. 2018; 19: 837-851
- Barriers to using nonpharmacologic approaches and reducing opioid use in primary care.Pain Medicine. 2017; 19: 1357-1364
- Vital signs: changes in opioid prescribing in the United States, 2006–2015.MMWR. Morb mortal wkly rep. 2017; 66: 697
- Association of pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioid products to physicians with subsequent opioid prescribing.JAMA Intern Med. 2018; 178: 861-863
- Association of pharmaceutical industry marketing of opioid products with mortality from opioid-related overdoses.JAMA Netw Open. 2019; 2e186007
- What is usual care for low back pain? A systematic review of health care provided to patients with low back pain in family practice and emergency departments.Pain. 2020; 161: 694-702
- Social stigma toward persons with prescription opioid use disorder: associations with public support for punitive and public health–oriented policies.Psychiatr. Serv. 2017; 68: 462-469
- Effect of opioid vs nonopioid medications on pain-related function in patients with chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain: the space randomized clinical trial.JAMA. 2018; 319: 872-882
- Chronic pain management in medical education: a disastrous omission.Postgrad. Med. 2017; 129: 332-335
- Lessons from corporate influence in the opioid epidemic: toward a norm of separation.J Bioethical Inq. 2020; 17: 173-189
- I was a little surprised": qualitative insights from patients enrolled in a 12-month trial comparing opioids with nonopioid medications for chronic musculoskeletal pain.J Pain. 2018; 19: 1082-1090
- Pain education in North American medical schools.J. Pain. 2011; 12: 1199-1208
- Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, US Department of Health and Human Services.2016 (Available at:)http://iprcc.nih.gov/docs/DraftHHSNationalPainStrategy.pdfDate accessed: May 24, 2021
- Medicine: The role of nonpharmacological approaches to pain management: Proceedings of a workshop.National Academies Press, 2019
- The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use.National Cancer Institute, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD2008
- Pharmaceutical payments to physicians may increase prescribing for opioids.Addiction. 2019; 114: 1051-1059
- Outcome Indicators for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Programs.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, Atlanta, Georgia2014
- Patient experiences with integrated pain care: a qualitative evaluation of one va's biopsychosocial approach to chronic pain treatment and opioid safety.Global advance health med. 2019; 8: 1-8
- Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research.National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC2011
- Evidence for truth(R): the young adult response to a youth-focused anti-smoking media campaign.Am J Prev Med. 2010; 39: 500-506
- Increases in drug and opioid overdose deaths—United States, 2000–2014.Morb mortal wkly rep. 2016; 64: 1378-1382
- Centers for Disease C, Prevention. Increases in heroin overdose deaths - 28 States, 2010 to 2012.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2014; 63: 849-854
- What should health care systems consider when implementing complementary and integrative health: Lessons from Veterans Health Administration.J Alt Complement Med. 2019; 25: S52-S60
- VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Opioid Therapy for Chronic Pain.2017
- Evidence of the impact of the truth finishit campaign.Nicotine Tob Res. 2018; 20: 543-551
- The effect of branding to promote healthy behavior: reducing tobacco use among youth and young adults.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2017; 14
- Use of mass media campaigns to change health behaviour.Lancet. 2010; 376: 1261-1271
Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 30, 2021
Footnotes
Disclosures. This material is the result of work supported with resources and the use of facilities from the Center for Care Delivery and Outcomes Research at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Healthcare System. The contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government. The authors have no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
