The Veterans Hospital in White River Junction is trying out new programs
designed to relieve pain without strong medications. VA doctors are now
prescribing acupuncture, yoga and aquatic therapy as alternatives.
Acupuncture has not yet been fully integrated into the hospital’s
menu of treatment options, but for about six months now, Dr. Freda
Dreher has been inserting sterile needles not much thicker than a human
hair into a few people looking for pain relief.
“So I will start
with a needle right at the shoulder that’s been painful,” she said to
Carol Hitchcock, Executive Assistant to the hospital Director.
Hitchcock
is a veteran who has served in Afghanistan, but her excruciating
shoulder injury resulted from a motorcycle accident many years ago.
“It
just hurt so bad that I couldn’t do anything, and I tend to be pretty
tolerant, but I couldn’t tolerate it any more,” Hitchcock recalled.
But
she didn’t want to take powerful, potentially addicting pain killers
either, especially since there is so much concern about opioids. So
about once a month - it used to be once a week - she comes into this
examining room and sits or lies down on a table to get non-medicinal
relief.
After Dr. Dreher inserted about a half dozen micro-thin needles into her arm, the patient looked and sounded more relaxed.
“I
sleep, which I hadn’t done for a number of years,” Hitchcock said. “I
can actually sleep now because of this. The pain is not there. I guess
it’s cyclical, right? So I feel better, so I am healthier, so I sleep
better and my weight is under control now, so everything just aligns."
Sometimes, Hitchcock said, the pain disappears instantly. Other times, as on this day, it slowly wanes through the day.
“So right this second, I don’t feel any different, but the whole health approach is amazing. Changed my life,” Hitchcock said.
The
VA is also trying to change lives and reduce opioid dependence with
other techniques. Therapists say aquatic physical therapy is bringing
results.
So is yoga.
In a large conference room, three
Vietnam-era veterans sat cross-legged on rubber mats as instructor
Brianna Renner—a former Marine--lead them through assorted poses.
“So
welcome everybody, we’ll start by finding a comfortable seated
position. Any there any areas you guys want to work on today?” Renner
asked them.
“Body and mind,” came a voice from the back.
“Body and mind - that narrows it down,” Renner chuckled.
Collectively,
these men have been suffering from back injuries and surgeries,
depression, and arthritis. Some are taking prescribed pain pills but
they would like to take fewer - or none.
Those are laudable goals, says Julie Franklin, an anesthesiologist who practices pain management at the VA Hospital.
A 2012 article in the Journal of American Medicine concludes that
veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health diagnoses, including
PTSD, were especially likely to receive opioids for pain, even though
that population is also at the highest risk for abusing those drugs.
“Patients
who are addicted or who have problematic opioid use need to be helped
to reduce or come off medication that actually may be providing more
harm than good for that patient,” Franklin said.
A 2012 article in the Journal of American Medicine
concludes that veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health
diagnoses, including PTSD, were especially likely to receive opioids for
pain, even though that population is also at the highest risk for
abusing those drugs.
At the VA Hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock
medical residents are observing the alternative therapies for possible
use with civilians. They say no one sees acupuncture or yoga as
overnight solutions, but they would like to see more patients give them a
try.
Those who do will be tracked, so that the Hospital can
determine whether alternative methods do a similar job as prescription
medicines.
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