Physical Therapy Provides an Alternative to the Rising Use of Opioids

Portland, OR – 25 Mar, 2016 – As you may have seen during the Superbowl, Opioid use is spiraling out of control in the United States, and those suffering from pain conditions need an alternative. Some are heralding physical therapy as a safe and effective alternative to treating pain, without the threat of addiction.

To spread the message that conservative, non-drug approaches can effectively manage pain, the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) has joined others in the federal, state, local and private sectors to address the prescription drug abuse and heroin epidemic. They collectively advocate that a multidisciplinary clinical approach—including physical therapists serving on the care team alongside physicians and other healthcare providers—can improve quality of life for patients with acute and chronic pain.

Stride Strong Physical Therapy’s Doctors of Physical Therapy offer one-on-one support for patients who are suffering from acute and chronic pain by developing individualized and personalized programs for patients. With an emphasis on exercise therapy and a commitment to building healthier physical habits for our patients, we aim to reduce dependency on painkillers and opioids by arming them with self-management exercises and techniques to modulate their pain and reduce disability.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, physicians wrote 259 million opioid prescriptions in 2012, which translates to one bottle of pills per American adult. The American Academy of Pain Medicine reports that pain disorders are on the rise, affecting more Americans than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. The commonly prescribed opioids OxyContin and Vicodin act quickly to get pain under control, but these drugs can also be harmful and addictive when abused.

An individualized physical therapy plan aims to reduce a patient’s pain and associated disability, improve function, and promote health and well-being. A physical therapist performs a comprehensive evaluation, after which they address chronic pain with a combination of movement exercises, manual therapy, and education about pain science, body alignment and movement. Physical therapists help patients understand the underlying cause of pain.

Stride Strong Physical Therapy is committed to improving communication between healthcare practitioners and their patients through an emphasis on patient education. We believe that arming patients with the best knowledge about their condition and the common pitfalls they may encounter on their quest for pain modulation would promote the healthiest and safest route to recovery.

Addiction to opioids is not a new phenomenon, but it has escalated to new proportions. The number of Americans dying each year from drug overdoses has surpassed that of motor vehicle crashes. More than half of patients prescribed opioids for chronic pain continue to take the painkillers five years later, according to a 2011 study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. In fact, a staggering four in five new heroin users started out misusing prescription painkillers, according to a National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief. A key initiative of the APTA and 40 provider groups over the next two years is a collective messaging campaign to reach more than 4 million healthcare providers regarding opioid abuse and appropriate prescribing practices.

About Stride Strong Physical Therapy

Stride Strong Physical Therapy has one mission in mind: To Give Patients What They Deserve. Founded in 2012 by a physical therapist, Dr. Alice Holland DPT and her husband, Scott Holland, their goal is not to keep patients in the healthcare loop of never-ending doctor visits, but to promote exercise, patient education and healthy habits to serve as a first-response to injury. Furthermore, Stride Strong’s physical therapists encourage the adoption of preventative care so surgery and medication dependency can be reduced in the community.

Please read more about Stride Strong on their website, http://stridestrong.com/

You can also see patient reviews for their two locations: Beaverton Stride Strong Reviews and Portland Stride Strong Reviews.

Media Contact
Company Name: Stride Strong
Contact Person: Alice Holland
Email: alice@stridestrong.com
Phone: (503) 208-6278
Address:12849 NW Cornell Rd
City: Portland
State: OR
Country: United States
Website: http://stridestrong.com/

ReleaseID: 541471

Source: GetNews