Healing Hands and Peer Support May Curb Prescription Opioid Misuse
by N.Morgan There is a new program that is offering group support, acupuncture, mindfulness, massage, and gentle exercise may help prevent patients on prescription opioids from spiraling down to drug misuse, overdose and death , according to a study led by researchers at UCSF. The study , published Feb. 20, 2019, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine , tracked the impact of a program for low-income, at-risk patients with chronic pain at Tom Waddell Urban Health Clinic, in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, a public health facility where UCSF medical students are trained and mentored. “Opioids are often prescribed to patients with moderate-to-severe pain from chronic health conditions, or for pain following injury or surgery,” said first author Maria T. Chao, DrPH, MPA, of the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. “Because of the potential dangers of opioid use, we wanted to see if a multimodal, non-pharmacological program could dec...