The most common treatment option in America for individuals suffering from chronic pain is opioids or pain medications. According to statistics, the US is home to 5% of the world’s population yet we consume 80% of the world’s opiates. Our pain isn’t any different than pain felt by someone in Africa or Asia, so why do we rely so heavily on opioids?

According to Dr. Aneesh Singla, it’s because we have the wrong mindset when it comes to setting expectations for opioid effectiveness.

The Myth of Zero Pain

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that the number of prescription opioids sold in the US since 1999 has quadrupled, yet the number of Americans reporting pain hasn’t changed. That’s because opioids are viewed as a solution, not as an aid to simply decrease pain while other treatments are performed. Opioids will never cure a chronic pain condition on their own, yet we expect them to rid us of all our pain. In a recent article, Dr. Singla said this problem can sometimes be traced back to the physician, who fails to explain that a chronic pain situation is not a zero sum game.

“I believe that pain is protective to us and that opiates will never cure pain 100%; so we set expectations for perhaps 50% pain relief from opiates, so that opioids are not overused in search of 100% pain relief,” said Dr. Singla. “I tell my patients that a 50% reduction in pain is a reasonable goal when treating chronic pain, and we seek this with multiple treatment options, not simply through opiates.”

There are two key takeaways from that quote. First, that the main goal of pain care treatment needs to be a reduction in pain, not its elimination. If you’ve been dealing with chronic back pain for years, it’s unreasonable to think that treatment will completely cure the problem and leave you with zero pain or discomfort, so the focus needs to be on making every day or every week less painful than the previous. The second point is that opiates alone will never solve this problem.

Opioids and Pain Expectations

We talk about pain medications on this blog and on our social channels a lot, and it’s interesting because the topic often brings out a knee-jerk response from different people. When we write articles about painkiller abuse or that pain will never be solved by a pill alone, many people are quick to defend their responsible opiate use and feel that we are attacking individuals who truly need pain pills to help them get through their day. The problem is that knee-jerk reaction couldn’t be farther from the message we’re trying to convey when talking about addiction, abuse or painkillers in general.

Opioids can be a key component to effectively managing chronic pain. We aren’t against opioids at all. What we’re trying to show in these articles is that our current views on them are misguided and that they need to be re-evaluated. It starts with the pharmaceutical companies who only care about their bottom line; It trickles down to the doctors who over-prescribe or under-educate patients on what they should expect from the opioids and how they can be used in conjunction with other treatment modalities, and it ends with the patient who decides to take an extra pill because their back is more painful than normal because they’ve skipped their last three physical therapy sessions.

Managing pain is not easy, and opioids play a vital role, but we need to do a better job of setting expectations and pairing pills with active rehab options to ensure the best results for our patients.