Monday, 17 September 2018: 10:20 AM
Opioid overdose rates have risen sharply over the last several years. While the cause of this steep incline is multifactorial, some behaviors have been identified as contributing to the opioid crisis. In August of 2014, King, Fraser, Boikos, Richardson, and Harper, published an article that sought to identify the determinants of increased opioid mortality in the United States (US) and Canada. Determinants were ultimately placed into three categories: prescriber behavior, user behavior and characteristics and environmental and systemic determinants (King et al., 2014, para. 2). The purpose of this paper and poster is to present the current state of the opioid crisis and to explore alternative therapies for treatment of chronic low back pain in the general adult population. An advanced literature search was conducted between the dates of February 2, 2017 and April 1, 2017 using the following databases: CINAHL with full text, Medline, PsycInfo, Social work Abstracts, Health source: nursing/Academic and PsycArticles. Eight quantitative studies that had a control were included for review. The included eight studies identified decreased pain and depression with yoga therapy as well as increased function and flexibility. A decrease in pain medication use was also noted in two of the eight studies. Yoga therapy was found to be beneficial and safe for patients with sciatica and disc bulges. Patient self- efficacy scores showed more improvement in the yoga arm of randomized controlled trials. Findings indicate that yoga therapy is an effective, cost efficient alternative to usual medical care and opioid prescribing for low back pain. There is a need for larger randomized control studies to include minorities and special populations such as different ethnic groups, pregnant women and populations with comorbidities. Outcomes data will guide future standards of care and evidence based medicine will aid in one aspect of the opioid crisis, prescriber behavior.