Opinion: An integrative approach to managing chronic pain can help solve the opioid crisis

President Trump officially made opioid addiction a public health emergency last week. While some of the solutions he outlined will be helpful, his focus on restricting access to legitimately and appropriately prescribed opioids is the wrong approach.

Many people call the current crisis an opioid epidemic. But what we really have is a chronic pain mismanagement problem. I treat patients with chronic pain and opioid addictions. To me, such addictions are the consequence of our failure to provide appropriate treatments for chronic pain. The flood of prescription opioids that has fueled this crisis is in large part the result of prescribing these powerful drugs as a quick solution to mask pain rather than treat its underlying causes.

The National Academy of Medicine estimated that and costs us $600 billion a year. These are more than just numbers that add up to a crisis. These are suffering people and families in need of compassionate, whole-person, and effective approaches to controlling their pain.