Non Medication Approaches to Pain Management – but need focus on acute and sub-acute pain

 

Non-medication approaches to pain management are critical contributions to clinical science. This JAMA interview lays out how 11 trials will be funded based on preliminary data showing possible benefit. While this interview and these trials are important, the focus, like most pain management related research is on chronic pain. Our work (foam rollers, movement, and TENS units) is beginning to focus on pain in the ED – a population most researchers have traditionally shied away from when testing non-medication analgesic approaches. 

 

Author: Jason Wilson, MD, PhD, CPE, FACEP

Jason Wilson, MD, PhD, CPE, FACEP is an emergency physician, academic healthcare leader and medical anthropologist with an interest in developing patient-centered pathways that are medically efficacious but also consider the role of structural and cultural forces in determining health inequities and disparities.