Oregon has the fourth-highest rate of prescription pain killer abuse in the nation, so the state is implementing new guidelines that will require doctors to give lower doses and shorter prescriptions.
That's a challenge for patients who've relied on opioids to deal with their pain. Alternative treatments such as massage and acupuncture don't always work. So Providence Health is also offering to re-educate patients about pain to help them deal with pain by learning to think about it differently.
Nora Stern, a physical therapist and manager of the "Persistent Pain Project," spoke to about a dozen patients about the re-education. "This class was designed to help us all start to talk about pain differently. There’s a lot of new information about pain that leads us now to understand what pain is differently and what the options are for treatment.”