Acupuncture for Addiction/Recovery
By Susie Orenstein-Turner, L.Ac, MPA

The use of acupuncture in addiction treatment began in the
1970’s when Dr. Wen, a neurosurgeon in Hong Kong used it to
treat postoperative pain in a man who also happened to be
withdrawing from heroin.  He noticed that the man’s withdrawal
symptoms had disappeared.  

Wen subsequently began treating narcotic addiction with
acupuncture and reports of his success reached Dr. Smith at New
York’s Lincoln Hospital, who adopted the approach in the mid
1970’s for a methadone program.  Smith and co-workers have
refined the detox protocol into five ear points and founded the
National Acupuncture Detoxification Association (NADA).

At the same time, the Haight-Asbury Free Clinic in San Francisco
began to utilize acupuncture for the treatment of alcohol
withdrawal and drug addiction.  Since then, over the past 25
years, the number of facilities has grown steadily and is now
estimated to be 1,200 in the US and over 4,000 worldwide.  

Programs utilizing this acupuncture protocol are located in county
jails, maximum-security prisons, outpatient drug treatment
programs, homeless shelters and mental health facilities.  A 1997
National Institutes of Health (NIH) panel concluded that
acupuncture should be part of a comprehensive management
program for addiction.

A recent Yale study reported on a randomized controlled trial of
ear acupuncture in cocaine-dependent subjects; 53.8% of those
receiving the acupuncture treatment tested free of cocaine at the
end of the study, compared with 23.5% and 9.1% in the two
control groups.  Those who completed the acupuncture treatment
also had longer periods of sustained abstinence than participants
in the control groups.  

Arthur Margolin, Ph.D., a research scientist at Yale’s Department
of Psychiatry stated: “in addition to its effectiveness, acupuncture
is a low cost treatment and has few, if any, side effects”.  
Margolin explains that acupuncture not only minimizes cravings
and withdrawal discomforts, it has long-term benefits such as
being less likely to return to drug use.  

Research published in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
from the Consortium Treatment center in Oregon, reveals that
acupuncture detoxification had the following measurable
outcomes among chronic offenders: increased patient retention,
reduced number of arrests, more drug free urinalysis and
decreased numbers of days needed for successful patient
progress.  

Patients who had been involved with acupuncture programs for
addiction had the following comments: “moods are less erratic”,
“full of energy”, “headaches are gone”, “feeling less stress”, “since
acupuncture I’ve stopped the craving”.  Counselors have
mentioned that those utilizing acupuncture come in more
balanced emotionally and physically.

A publicly funded study at the Boston University in 1994 found
that among the acupuncture clients, 18% were readmitted to
detox with in six months compared with the 36% of non-
acupuncture residential clients who were readmitted within six
months.  The study suggested there is great value for outpatient
acupuncture programs as a component of a substance abuse
treatment system.  The authors further noted its usefulness
when space in residential treatment programs is limited.

There has been substantial research done on why acupuncture
assists addicts with recovery.  Dr. Lewith, director of the Center
for Complimentary Therapy and Integrated Medicine in
Southhampton, UK explains that acupuncture helps with anxiety
because it triggers the release of calming transmitters, which are
like opiates.   Scientific research has shown that addiction,
withdrawal and recovery are all related to brain chemicals such as
the opioid peptides and to stress-regulating hormones in the
body.  

In a 2005 Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients it is
documented that acupuncture increases levels of opioid peptides
such as endorphins, substance P and cholecystokinin among
many others.  In addition, acupuncture may induce alterations in
certain hormones including coritisol and ACTH to reduce stress.
The number of programs incorporating acupuncture is growing
each year.  Those in recovery need acupuncture to improve the
quality of their recovery and reduce the risk of relapse.  
Acupuncture is especially attractive because it does not involve
long-term administration of medications, which for a substance
abuse addict is an especially positive aspect.

Many studies have documented the effectiveness of the NADA
protocol. Among the benefits reported by patients and health
care providers are:


Smoking Cessation

As early as 1982, the Medical Journal of Austin conducted a
study of 194 smokers who were treated with  acupuncture for
smoking cessation.  The study found that 95% of the patients
quit smoking after three treatments and 85% reported that
acupuncture had eased the symptoms of smoking withdrawal.

A 1983 edition of the American Journal of Medicine reported that
of 339 patients followed who were given acupuncture for smoking
cessation, 297 stopped smoking for a success rate of 88%.

The March, 97' edition of Preventive Medicine, from the
Department of Preventative Medicine at the University of Oslo,
Norway, studied the effects of acupuncture on smoking
cessation.  The study tested 46 men who smoked 20 cigarettes
per day and wanted to quit.  They found that as a result of the
acupuncture, daily cigarette consumption decreased and 31% of
the subjects quit at the end of the treatment protocol.  The
study suggested that acupuncture may help motivated smokers
to reduce or quit smoking completely.
Addiction