Acupuncture as an Effective Drug Addiction Treatment
Research and experiments regarding the use of acupuncture for treatment of drug addiction and detoxification has shown promising results. Anecdotal and clinical evidence has proved that acupuncture can be an effective weapon for people who are chemical dependent.
Acupuncture treatment has shown to alleviate withdrawal symptoms considerably. This has facilitated detoxification and has even motivated addicts not to drop out of the treatment.
In fact a lot of detoxification clinics have included acupuncture in their treatment regimes. The “drug courts” created by the court systems in major cities of the US have devised an intensive program for counselling and treatment. These programs also sometimes include acupuncture in their format.
Approach and methods being totally different from the Western medicine, it is difficult to synthesize acupuncture and the American addiction treatment. Westerners are very sceptical about the effectiveness of this procedure.
Western medicine of late has been realizing the significance of the effectiveness of acupuncture in pain management. Though it has taken considerable time for the west to understand the Chinese concept of the invisible qi or the life energy flowing through the invisible meridians, the imporatance of treating diseases with acupuncture as a complementary procedure is gaining popularity.
This acceptance has also been aided by recent research which has proven that the procedure of acupuncture stimulates the production of beta endorphins in the body.
Another important discovery which popularised acupuncture in the West is that of the French doctor Paul Nogier in the year 1955. He discovered that every traditional acupuncture point on the body has a corresponding point on the ear.
Auricular acupuncture thus gained popularity as this procedure did not require privacy. A lot of patients can be treated simultaneously in the same room without any problem especially in case of drug detoxification.
In case of drug addiction, conclusive scientific evidence is not available. A study by Milton L. Bullock in the British Journal “The Lancet” concludes that acupuncture is highly effective in the treatment of alcoholism.
This conclusion was arrived at by conducting acupuncture treatments on severe recidivist alcoholics and treatment group patients.
An analysis of the available research reports on acupuncture as a part of the detoxification protocol was done and the results were published in the “Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment”.
This analysis was based on seven experiments conducted on animals. These experiments proved that acupuncture effectively reduces withdrawal symptoms in animals.
Acupuncture, though does not have a physiological cure for drug addiction, certainly gives the patient a soothing and relaxed feeling which is extremely helpful for them to handle the stress of the lifestyle change.
One of the very famous detoxification clinics in New York City, U.S uses the procedure of acupuncture in its treatment regime.
The motivation to do this came in the form of a neurosurgeon in Hong Kong Dr. H.L.Wen who noticed a radical reduction in the symptoms of withdrawal in opiate addicted patients to whom he had been regularly giving acupuncture treatment.
Lincoln Clinic decided to carry out some experiments with this procedure. Until then they had been a methadone clinic. Conviction over the outcome of these experiments led this clinic to develop a certain protocol which they have taught to around 500 clinicians and implemented in 150 programs over the years.
The standard protocols of the eminent Lincoln Clinic revolve around four main as well as significant tools to help addicts to recover –
- Acupuncture detoxification
- Urine testing
- Individual counselling
- Group based therapy involving 12 steps
According to Smith the director of Lincoln Clinic, advantages of incorporating acupuncture with their traditional treatment are numerous. The most important of these advantages is that with acupuncture, there is a cessation of the withdrawal symptoms in the patients which encourages them to come back for further treatment.
Smith further states that according to statistics, pregnant women with a history of abusing crack cocaine who are undergoing acupuncture treatment give birth to babies of higher weight than those who do not.
Furthermore, a clinic in Delaware using the Lincoln Clinic protocol for treatment reported that a seven-day in-patient drug treatment oriented program saw a decline in the recidivism rates from 87% to 18% one year after the date of admission.
Dr.Smith observes that the acupuncture procedure actually forges a kind of a bond between the doctor and the patient prior to any kind of agreement or conversations. One major advantage is that acupuncture does not require cooperation from the patient in contrast to verbal communication where a patient may feel angry or in denial or even intimidated and may resort to lying.
Dr.Smith says according to the patients, acupuncture allows them to feel relaxed yet alert. The methadone treatment affects the patient’s body’s need for the drug whereas acupuncture affects the patient’s state of mind during withdrawal.
