According to APTA (American Physical Therapy Association), A new study has added to the growing body of evidence that beyond its effectiveness as a treatment for the pain itself, there are additional benefits to receiving physical therapy for low back pain (LBP) as a first-line approach: doing so could save money and dramatically reduce the chance of receiving an opioid prescription down the road.
Why should you choose PT as a first option before turning to an opioid prescription? Here are a few reasons:
- Significantly lower costs- patients with low-back pain who received care from a PT first experienced lower out-of-pocket, pharmacy, and outpatient costs after 1 year.
- Decrease in opioid usage– Low-back pain patients reduce their likelihood of receiving an opioid prescription by 87% compared with patients who never visited a PT.
- It’s safer!- Authors point out, “Opioid overdoses have reached epidemic proportions, and opioids have not been found to significantly improve health outcomes. First-line, nonpharmacological methods to treat LBP (low-back pain) have been recommended in the literature; this study suggests that [physical therapy] may be a positive alternative.
Read the full study here.