ACUPUNCTURE HEROIN DETOXIFICATION - A SINGLE-BLIND CLINICAL-TRIAL

The increasing prevalence of HIV infection among injection drug users mandates the development of innovative treatments. While extensive cli nical experience suggests that acupuncture detoxification is both safe and acceptable to those in withdrawal, little research has been condu cted to assess its efficacy as a treatment modality. In this first con trolled study of acupuncture heroin detoxification, 100 addicted perso ns were randomly assigned, in a single-blind design, to the standard a uricular acupuncture treatment used for addiction or to a ''sham'' tre atment that used points that were geographically close to the standard points. Attrition was high for both groups, but subjects assigned to the standard treatment attended the acupuncture clinic more days and s tayed in treatment longer than those assigned to the sham condition. A dditionally, attendance varied inversely with self-reports of frequenc y of drug use, suggesting that those with lighter habits found the tre atment modality more helpful. Limitations of the study are discussed.