Study shows eight weeks of acupuncture effective in reducing methadone dose in people with opioid use disorder.
- Methadone is a synthetic opiate used in the treatment of addiction to heroin or other opiates.
- In one study, adults with opioid use disorder who received acupuncture three times a week for eight weeks reduced their methadone dose by 20% or more.
- No serious adverse events occurred during the procedure.
Methadone is a synthetic opiate, which contains a substance similar to morphine. In adults addicted to heroin or other opiates, this medication helps suppress the withdrawal symptoms that occur during drug withdrawal. However, “adverse effects mean that optimal treatment is achieved at the lowest dose that controls the need for opioids,” said researchers from the University of Chinese Medicine in Guangzhou, China. In a recent study, they wanted to evaluate the effectiveness of acupuncture compared to sham acupuncture on reducing methadone doses.
More patients reduced their methadone dose by 20% or more with acupuncture
To conduct their research, the team recruited 118 people aged 65 or younger who had an opioid use disorder. They had been on methadone for at least six weeks and were randomly assigned to receive acupuncture or sham acupuncture three times a week for eight weeks. According to the results, published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicinemore patients had reduced their methadone dose by 20% or more with acupuncture than with sham acupuncture at week 8 (62% vs. 29%). Additionally, compared with sham acupuncture, acupuncture was more effective at reducing opioid craving, “with a mean difference of -11.7 mm on the visual analogue scale.”
“Further research to measure long-term clinical outcomes”
The authors did not observe any serious side effects. “Although further research is needed to measure long-term clinical outcomes and to determine how acupuncture can best be integrated into a comprehensive addiction treatment program, we believe these results support the consideration of acupuncture for methadone reduction in individuals receiving methadone substitution treatment,” concluded the scientists.
