Non-Opioid Pain Treatments: The FDA Is Stepping Into Non-Opioid Pain Management Family Health Men's Health Women's Health Kids' Health Diseases/Disorders

Worried about using opioids for pain relief? The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just published new guidance for the development of non-opioid pain treatments in the Federal Register. This update is timely in light of a recent NIH-funded study of 90,000 Americans showing that chronic pain has increased by 13 percent over the last two years, devastating the lives of 24.3 percent of the U.S. population.

Chronic pain cannot be taken lightly, and neither should overdose deaths involving opioids.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2024, overdose deaths in the U.S. involving opioids were 54,743, down from 83,140 in 2023.

The question remains: How to continue the decrease in narcotic overdose deaths without leaving people in chronic pain? This underscores the importance of non-opioid pain relief. Fortunately, research shows that numerous safe and low-cost, non-opioid approaches can be effective for pain management, and people can apply them safely on their own. The challenge is lack of physician and patient education about these available tools. Physicians are not trained in alternatives to the heavy-duty pharmaceuticals routinely prescribed for pain, which often come with side effects and health risks.

I have published multiple studies and medical textbook chapters on effective non-opioid treatment for pain management. Countless studies including my research have shown that a majority of people can be free from pain by treating the root causes of chronic pain instead of the symptoms alone.

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