Maryland County Tries Acupuncture to Treat Addiction

When you walk into the room, it definitely feels New Age.

Montgomery County, MD council members last Fall voted to spend $20,000 on a pilot program to include acupuncture as a drug treatment technique. According to The Washington Post, it's one of just a handful of such programs in the Washington, DC area.

Acupuncture is a very ancient Chinese practice that uses needles to correct a number of physical imbalances in the body. Each day, The Post says, more than a dozen volunteers show up at to be stuck with needles as part of Montgomery County's acudetox program. The actual treatment began in February.

Wielding the needles are a few Montgomery County staff members training in the art of acupuncture. A 37-year-old woman who arrived early in the morning for treatment admitted she almost decided to avoid the practice because of a fear of needles. However, she's become a fan of the New Age method.

Through the ages, Chinese practitioners have utilized acupuncture to treat quite a few problems. Although relieving chronic pain is the use that most frequently comes to mind, the needles have also solved problems involving infertility. According to The Post, the practice is gaining popularity as a way to treat addictions. Programs currently exist from one coast to the other in the United States.

Staff members note seeing significant changes in the attitude of patients who participate in the program. They refer to them as calmer and more open to the use of acupuncture after their initial treatments.

Nearby Fairfax County, VA has offered a similar program since the 1990s, The Post reports. The county has not kept statistics about acupuncture treatment. However, a representative of the Fairfax Detoxification Center indicated patients state that acupuncture has helped cut their cravings for drugs and alcohol and made it easier to sleep.

Staff members of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine currently participate in more than 100 research projects to look at the effect of acupuncture on a variety of conditions. Among them are autism, hot flashes, and obesity.