There has been a tremendous amount of publicity in recent years regarding the nation’s opioid crisis. And with reason. The statistics are sobering and heartbreaking. According to estimates, nearly 130 lives were lost to opioid overdose every day in the United States in 2018.
It is not, however, that the US is just embroiled in an opioid crisis. It is that America is trapped in a pain crisis as well. According to 2016 estimates from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 20% of Americans suffer from chronic pain, while 8% of those experience what the CDC calls “high-impact” pain.
This is pain that significantly impacts sufferers’ daily functioning, including their ability to work, care for themselves or their families, or pursue an education. And that puts them at increased risk of poverty, underemployment, and insufficient healthcare and healthcare insurance coverage.
Why It Matters
The chronic pain crisis is not only cutting lives short as patients turn to opioids to try to find the relief the healthcare system fails to provide, but it’s also impacting quality of life. It’s depriving families and communities of those they need most.
And it’s costing the US healthcare system more than $600 billion per year in lost productivity and costs of care. Strategies of palliative care, in general, have been largely ineffective and notoriously short-sighted in the management of chronic diseases and the significant pain that often accompanies them.
What is to Be Done?
As dire as these statistics may seem, the situation is far from hopeless. When the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began to turn its attention in earnest to combating the opioid crisis, it also began to redouble its efforts to support and care for patients.
The goal has been to partner with research institutions and care providers to discover new approaches for the care of patients ill-served thus far by traditional practices, practices largely devoid of alternatives to opioid-based management. In recent years, for example, research institutions such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality have been partnering with HHS to develop a system-wide approach to the management of both acute and chronic pain.
This has included the development of a multiphase toolkit for the training and support of clinicians and healthcare providers in safe and effective pain mitigation protocols. This includes the strategic, limited, temporary, and safer use of opioids when and only for as long as absolutely necessary for the management of the most severe acute pain.
Expanding the Field
Research into pain management has extended beyond the rigorously controlled use of opioids on a limited basis. It has also sought to identify opioid alternatives for patients contending with significant and on-going pain.
The kratom plant, for example, has garnered increasing interest from medical researchers, practitioners of alternative medicine, and average consumers alike. Typically brewed into a tea, advocates proclaim its pain-relieving and mood-elevating properties. These claims are increasingly supported by scientific research.
Studies are still limited, however, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has sought to regulate the distribution and consumption of the plant. Specifically, the FDA cites concerns that the analgesic properties of kratom may lead to its abuse or misuse. These considerations alone, however, are enough to suggest kratom’s potential as an alternative avenue of effective pain management for sufferers in need of on-going care.
The New Age of Nootropics
Perhaps for as long as humans have walked the Earth, they have turned to natural plants and herbs not only to help heal their wounds and cure their ailments but also simply to make them feel and function better. From caffeine to ginseng, humans have a long history of using nootropics to boost energy, improve concentration, and help them perform better overall.
In today’s brave new world of science, medicine, and technology, however, researchers are increasingly exploring the potential of synthetic or bio-engineered nootropics to combat disease, slow the effects of aging, optimize physical functioning, and drive mental acuity.
The Takeaway
Chronic pain can be a cruel master, but it doesn’t have to be a life sentence. It is possible to return to a high quality of life, to live productively and happily, even in the face of illness and pain. Every day, researchers are discovering important alternatives to opioids in the management of chronic pain. From the wonders of kratom to the exciting potential of nootropics, the future for chronic pain sufferers is brighter than it has ever been. Hopes are high, and ever-rising, that today’s chronic pain is tomorrow’s memory.
On-going research into the development of injectable and implantable nootropics, for instance, may offer hope to chronic pain sufferers. It is feasible, for instance, that injectable nootropics, such as the highly promising AT-121, may be used to target the brain’s pain centers, offering relief without the physical and psychotropic risks associated with traditional opioids.
