Acupuncture for Substance Abuse.

Acupuncture is commonly used to help people withdraw from tobacco, alcohol, heroin or cocaine addiction; it's currently being studied by the National Institute of Drug Abuse, and it's used widely in New York City for outpatient drug detoxification. The points for treating drug addiction are found on the ear, and they can be taught relatively easily to laypeople, which then only use acupuncture for this specific purpose. Detoxification from chronic use of prescribed opiates usually takes 3-6 months; even "brief" detoxification programs may take more than a month. In an uncontrolled trial of electrical stimulation at ear acupuncture points, twelve out of fourteen chronic pain patients were able to completely withdraw from narcotics within 2-7 days, and they experienced View the rest of this article