From the Archives
On Wednesday,
February 25, 2005, the community forum on The Use of Acupuncture Detoxification
in West Bengal HIV/AIDS and Drug Treatment Services was held at the Solidarityand Action Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHI) office. National Acupuncture Detoxification
Association (NADA), International, called the forum. Representatives from these two organizations
as well as participants from six organizations, namely, Amitic, Vivekananda
International Health Centre, Prajan, Swikriti, Manas Bengal, and the IndianResearch Institute on Integrative Medicine (IRIIM) attended.
The forum’s main
presenter was Dr. Michael O. Smith. Dr.
Michael O. Smith is a psychiatrist, certified addictionologist and
acupuncturist.
He is an internationally recognized teacher in the acupuncture
and deaddiction field. He has pioneered
the use of acupuncture at Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, New York for the past 30 years. This method
is now used in more than 200 addiction treatment settings in the New York area and 15,00
settings worldwide. Dr. Smith has used
acupuncture as an immune enhancement for AIDS patients. He has conducted a
weekly AIDS clinic at the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York, providing over 7,000 treatments in
the past 12 years.
Dr. Smith detailed
the many ways that acupuncture detoxification can be used in deaddiction
treatment, in services for HIV+ positive people, in HIV/STD prevention
services, in other types of counseling, and in outreach to street
children. Dr. Smith described
acupuncture detoxification as a non-verbal, non-threatening, therapy that
engages patients in treatment and improves their retention in services without
any side effects. The NADA protocol for acupuncture detoxification entails the
needling of one to five (depending of the needs and comfort level of the
patient) acupuncture points in the ear. Acupuncture detoxification treatments
do not require a diagnosis and can be used broadly, independent of an
individual’s mental or physical health status.
It serves to initiate a process of self-healing within the patient by,
among many things, inducing a sense of calmness and allowing the patient to be
settled in his inner self. The protocol
does not require the removal of clothes, so it can be done in public spaces,
though it is most beneficial if done in a quiet, safe group space. Most people, regardless of their
understanding of medical sciences, can be trained in the protocol making it an
ideal intervention for counselors, social workers, peer educators, and other
service providers.
Dr. Smith explained that acupuncture
detoxification could be useful in a number of ways. For those patients who lack self-esteem and
are therefore wary to believe a counselor who tells them that they are capable
of achieving many things, acupuncture detoxification is a way to stabilize
these patients and allow them to feel a sense of their own self worth. For those patients who choose not to be
honest with their counselors, acupuncture detoxification is a means for the
counselor to reach these patients without engaging in confrontation that is not
productive. Patients addicted to drugs,
regardless of their drug of choice, have shown to reduce their cravings for
substances with the use of acupuncture detoxification coupled with individual
and group level interventions.
Dr. Smith also
spoke to the ways in which acupuncture can be used for the treatment of people
who are HIV positive or at risk for HIV.
Acupuncture detoxification promotes relaxation in a person who is
burdened by the many stresses of living with HIV. As a reduction is stress directly enhances
the immune system, acupuncture detoxification allows the patient a means to
improve his own health. A person who is
immune compromised can be empowered by the understanding that the body,
regardless of the presence of a virus, with the assistance of acupuncture
detoxification, can heal itself. As with
deaddiction treatment, acupuncture detoxification can assist a patient in being
more open to counseling and talking about the issues that she faces as a result
of her HIV status. In HIV prevention,
those people who are making the choice to engage in high-risk behaviors can
benefit from acupuncture detoxification as it allows them to be more reflective
of their actions. It can also be used in
conjunction with counseling to assist a person in making healthier choices with
regards to her behavior.
For interventions
with street children, Dr. Smith recommended the use of magnetic beads placed in
on an acupuncture point at the back of the ear to stabilize children and engage
them in further interventions. He
discussed a recent study done with children who suffer from Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the remarkable calming effects that treating
this single point brought to these children.
The intervention using magnetic beads is particularly useful with
children because 1) it uses beads instead of needles, 2) the bead is placed
behind the ear so that the child herself as well as any other person does not
even know it is there, 3) it is very cost effective as each bead costs
approximately 43 paise, 4) it is an intervention that takes a matter of seconds
so many children can be treated at a time, 5) staff as well as community
members that interact with these children can easily be trained to do this
intervention, 6)there are no laws in West Bengal restricting the implementation
of this treatment and 7) it is a
treatment that lasts for 5 days.
Dr. Smith
discussed how acupuncture detoxification is not the only intervention that
produces such effects in this range of social service programming. He also discussed that hatha yoga,
naturopathy, homeopathy, meditation, breathing, as well as other disciplines
coupled with counseling can provide patients with the same benefits. However, acupuncture detoxification is a
therapy that requires less motivation on the part of the patient and also
provides immediate results.
A number of forum
participants were interested in the techniques that Dr. Smith described,
especially treating street children with magnetic beads. One service provider who works with children
near railway stations in isolated locations of West Bengal
said that he was “at the end of his rope,” as there are no de-addiction services
for these children and limited services available to them due to funding
restraints. He was interested in using
an intervention using magnetic beads it is cost effective, simple, and easy to
implement. Dr. Smith encouraged him not
only to implement this intervention into his programming but also to document
its effects.
Other participants
where interested in the use of acupuncture in social services. Dr. Banerjee, the medical director of
Pratyaya, the deaddiction cum rehabilitation centre run by the IRIIM shared the
successes of his program in using acupuncture, yoga, and naturopathy in
treating drug addicts. He also spoke to
the innovative ways in which tongue diagnosis is being used to monitor and
document patient progress. His program
is staffed by licensed acupuncturists as well as other specialists of various
medical traditions. It has a one-year
training program in acupuncture and yoga therapy. As well as the deaddiction cum rehabilitation
center, IRIIM also has a hospital open to the general population that treats a
host of diseases and ailments using acupuncture, yoga, naturopathy, and, only
when necessary, allopathic medicine. Dr.
Banerjee accepted a letter of recognition from NADA International on behalf of
Dr. Debashish Bakshi, Director of IRIIM, for his achievements in using acupuncture,
yoga, and naturopathy the field of drug and alcohol abuse treatment.
At the conclusion
of the forum, Suneel Vatsyayan of NADA India who was another presenter of the
forum, asked that the participants to form a plan of action for those
interested in using acupuncture detoxification in West
Bengal social services. In West Bengal, the law currently does not allow anyone who
is not an acupuncturist to practice acupuncture. While this is a beneficial law to ensure that
acupuncture is not irresponsibly or dangerously practiced, it limits the
potential for the broad use of acupuncture detoxification in a range of
services that could benefit from its implementation. When proper supervision and training are
implemented, the NADA acupuncture detoxification protocol has been proven to be
both effective and safe in countries across the world including in India where a number of programs are using it,
in Delhi,
namely. If a special provision were made
in the law that would allow the NADA protocol be practiced under proper
supervision, then this would open up a great possibility for deaddiction,
HIV/AIDS treatment and care, HIV/STI prevention, street children outreach, as
well as many other counseling based social services. The participants of the forum made a number
of suggestions:
1)
Further meetings of interested persons and
organizations should take place to discuss acupuncture detoxification and the
potential for its use in social services.
2)
A research based pilot program should be set up where
acupuncture detoxification is used and its efficacy is documented and reported
to the government with recommendations.
Those agencies involved in the project can meet every 90 days to discuss
the results of their work.
3)
Acupuncturists who are concerned with the causes of deaddiction,
HIV/AIDS, street children, and other social ills can be called upon to
supervise, support, and train counselors, peer educators, and other service
providers in using the NADA protocol.
4)
A website or email list serve can be created for those
who are interested in acupuncture detoxification to share ideas and develop
strategies for change in policy and use of the technique.
5)
NADA India trainers can visit Kolkata to provide
training and certification to those interested.
6)
A proposal can be submitted to IRIIM to host the
70-hour, NADA training program as well as to provide technical support and
supervision to programs interested in using the protocol as IRIIM is already
doing innovative work with acupuncture, deaddiction, and training.
Shonali Saha, an Acupuncture
Detoxification Specialist from the New York who has done work as a counselor in
the fields of de-addiction and HIV/AIDS since 1996, volunteered to be the point
person for any interested person who like to undertake any of these
recommendations during the month of March.
The other participants in the
forum were asked contact her if they or anyone else they knew were interested
in caring on these efforts on a long term basis.