2801 – Effectiveness of electroacupuncture as adjunctive therapy in relieving opiate withdrawal symptoms among methadoe maintainance treatment (MMT) patient: a single blinded, randomized study

Abstract

Over the last decades, acupuncture has been seen as an acceptable primary detoxification treatment for opiate dependence, and currently used to relieve the severity of opiate withdrawal symptoms among MMT patient. To investigate the effectiveness of electroacupuncture treatment in reducing opiate withdrawal symptoms among MMT patient. This was a pilot study with randomized, single-blinded, and parallel. Recruitment of 22 subjects, 11 in methadone treatment + acupuncture and 11 in methadone treatment without acupuncture. The severity of withdrawal reaction was assessed by Objective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (OOWS) and Subjective Opiate Withdrawal Scale (SOWS) at baseline, third, fifth, seventh, tenth and fourteenth day of treatment. One way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) comparing the mean scores of the OOWS between treatment and control group has shown at tenth day of treatment p value is 0.026 and at fourteenth day p value is 0.022. One way ANOVA comparing the mean scores of the SOWS between treatment and control groups has shown at tenth day of treatment, p value is 0.015 and at fourteenth day, p value is 0.009. The study has shown the promising results, where electroacupuncture treatment had an effectiveness in relieving opiate withdrawal symptoms among MMT patient.