Acupuncture Tried as Way to Ease Cravings for Drugs

The balding man with the black-and-gray beard leaned his head back with his eyes closed, relaxing, as if in a trance. Three needles protruded from each ear and another was stuck into the top of his head.

Bruce, a 36-year-old alcoholic and cocaine addict, was undergoing what some doctors say is a promising treatment for drug abusers--acupuncture.

In the city-run clinic around Bruce, 30 people relaxed in armchairs after being stuck in each ear with three, four or five half-inch-long stainless steel needles. One man read the morning paper. A woman held her baby in her lap. Another man sang softly to himself in Spanish. Others dozed.

Clinic in South Bronx

They were all drug addicts and had come from throughout New York City to Lincoln Hospital’s acupuncture detoxification clinic in the South Bronx, a neighborhood where drug-dealing, arson and violent death are a way of life.

Doctors and patients at the clinic say acupuncture helps alcoholics and addicts relax and relieves their intense cravings. Other doctors say that there have not been enough scientific studies to determine if acupuncture actually eases withdrawal symptoms.

More than 50 centers have been modeled after the South Bronx program, including clinics in the Netherlands, Britain and Nepal, said Dr. Michael O. Smith, Lincoln Hospital’s medical director for substance abuse treatment.

Acupuncture, developed more than 2,500 years ago by the Chinese, relieves pain and stress by inserting needles into specific points on the body that are believed to affect organs and bodily functions.

Helps Endure Withdrawal

Lincoln’s acupuncture program was begun in 1974 as an alternative to giving heroin addicts methadone, a synthetic narcotic. Like methadone, acupuncture does not cure addiction--it helps patients get through the withdrawal period.

The clinic also has used acupuncture to treat more than 500 AIDS patients in the last six years. Some of them reported relief from symptoms of the deadly disease such as diarrhea, night sweats and skin rashes.

Smith and many other doctors initially thought the idea of using acupuncture to treat drug addicts seemed far-fetched.

“I must say that I was sympathetic to the idea of a drug-free treatment, but I was skeptical that something as genteel as acupuncture would have any effect in the drug world. And I think that is a common attitude.

“But, when we gave the treatment, we saw right before our eyes that it relieved the patients’ symptoms and made them feel better.”

Receive Counseling

Once the patients are beyond the immediate symptoms of withdrawal, he said, they receive regular counseling at the clinic and are encouraged to attend meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous or another support group.

“I was doing a lot of cocaine,” said Bruce (not his real name). “I was sniffing large quantities. I started hearing a lot of voices and stuff. Paranoia set in. I had a lot of suicidal thoughts.”

At the peak of his habit, Bruce said, he was drinking as much as a case of beer a day and sniffing up about $150 worth of cocaine on weekends. “I was losing everything: my home life, the house, myself--but I couldn’t stop.”

Since he began the acupuncture with counseling and joined Narcotics Anonymous, Bruce said, he has been able to stay off cocaine and booze for more than two months.

“The desire, the compulsion to do any drug is gone,” he said. “I’ve even quit smoking, and I had started when I was 12 or 13 years old.”

Unsure How It Works

Western scientists aren’t sure how the ancient therapy works, but some believe the needle punctures stimulate the brain to produce endorphins, a natural pain-killer. Others theorize that the needles may interrupt pain messages to the brain.

The American Medical Assn. last took a position on acupuncture in 1981, calling it “an experimental procedure” that could “provide temporary relief from pain” and deserved further study, AMA spokesman Dan Maier said.

“It’s inconceivable to me that acupuncture can have a genuine pharmacological effect on something like drug abuse,” said Dr. Stephen Barrett, a psychiatrist and board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud. “I think it flies in the face of common sense that needling somebody would make any difference.”

Other doctors involved in drug-abuse treatment say they have heard anecdotal reports that acupuncture relieves withdrawal symptoms.

Not Enough Studies

“The problem is that, to date, there haven’t been (enough) controlled studies documenting whether acupuncture works,” said Dr. Robert Millman, director of drug and alcohol abuse services at New York Hospital.

Without that scientific research, “there’s no way of knowing whether it works or not,” said Dr. Jack Blaine, chief of the treatment research branch at the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md., which recently approved a $140,000 grant for a study of Lincoln’s acupuncture program.

The journal “Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research” in 1987 reported that a study of 54 alcoholics found that acupuncture helped prevent relapses.

Dr. Mindy Fullilove, an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry in the University of California system, is studying heroin addicts to see whether acupuncture or methadone is more effective.