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Treating Chronic Pain: A Case Study

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Treating Chronic Pain: A Case Study
The current method of treating chronic pain is the use of narcotics. Looking at the prescription of narcotics from an epidemiological point of view, it shows there are clear widespread complications occurring do their use. Consequently, the patient population affected by chronic pain are starting to experience undesired outcomes in their long term care. As of 2014, based off of surveys it was estimated that 2.1 million United States adults are dealing with addiction to prescribed narcotics (Valkow, 2014). Not only can addiction occur, these patients also experience a number of short and long term side effects. Some of the minor side effects include paranoia, nausea, vomiting and constipation. However, there are some very concerning effects that can occur due to these medications. These include respiratory depression which can lead to brain damage due to hypoxia, as well as liver damage which can lead to eventual cirrhosis and heart problems can occur as well. …show more content…
This results in high number of patient populations affected by various conditions all requiring treatment for a common
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