Music Therapy Pain Management
In the throes of the opioid crisis, the Joint Commission has recognized the need for non-pharmacological options to manage pain. New requirements for non-pharmacological options start in January 2018. However, one Cleveland area hospital has already implemented a music therapy pain management program.
About eight people die every day from a drug overdose in Ohio. To help fight the epidemic, there is a push for alternative treatments for pain.
Starting this January, all hospitals have to offer non-drug treatments. Some are already taking notes from a community hospital right here in Northeast Ohio.
“These patients really need another avenue to truly try to help them in their pain, to control their pain better, that isn’t using medications, because medications are not the answer, and definitely not long-term,” explained Patty Tumbush, pharmacy supervisor at University Hospitals Richmond Medical Center.
Dr. Ratay says their approach goes back to our roots.
“Opiates have not been around all that long in the scope of pain management, and so we’re kind of going back to the initial ways that we treated pain and then using opiates as the adjunct,” she explained. “So, rather than using music therapy and OMT as the adjunct, it should be the other way around.”
Plus, music therapy works. Studies show it reduces a patient’s perception of pain.
Source: UH Richmond leading the way in fighting opioid epidemic with music therapy
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