Acupuncture Can Work, and It's Not Just Wishful Thinking
There is nothing New Age about the Lincoln Hospital Recovery Center in New York's South Bronx. Broken glass glitters outside the main entrance, where drug-addicted men and women wait in line for the clinic to open at 7:30 a.m. Inside, the decor is institutional drab. Yet the treatment of choice might seem more at home among the hot tubs of Marin County: a set of small acupuncture needles in each ear. Psychiatrist Michael Smith, who runs the clinic, says acupuncture helps addicts overcome their cravings. "It has a relaxing effect," he says. "The person feels comfortable, more able to listen and cope."
Acupuncture is no longer just an upscale alternative treatment. It is turning up in drug-abuse centers--over 700 of them nationwide--dental clinics, cancer centers, and gynecologists' offices. Millions have tried it to relieve hard-to-treat conditions such as pain, headaches, nausea, and addictions like smoking. The National Institutes of Health estimates that as of 1996, 70 percent to 80 percent of insurers covered at least some of the costs. Even some doctors, who are typically wary of alternative medicine, are learning the ancient Chinese technique. The American Academy of Medical Acupuncture (AAMA), an organization of doctors with acupuncture training, has more than doubled its membership since 1995 to over 2,000.
Yet while some doctors have become converts because they see real benefits in their patients, many remain deeply skeptical, saying there's little scientific evidence about how acupuncture might work--or whether it really is effective. "You could throw away 95 percent of the studies," says David Mayer, a professor of anesthesiology at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, "because they are all so poorly designed." But that may be changing. One study, published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed measurable benefits in women nauseated from chemotherapy; the other, in the August Archives of Internal Medicine, presented evidence that acupuncture blunts cravings among cocaine addicts. Meanwhile, other research is unmasking how the treatment might affect the brain. The findings are moving acupuncture much closer to the mainstream. But so far, the studies show it works best as an adjunct to conventional therapy--not as a substitute.
Pins and needles. In 1997, the latest year for which numbers are available, acupuncture visits exceeded 5 million, mostly for muscle and joint pain. In multiple sessions over a few weeks or months, a practitioner typically inserts hair-thin needles to a depth of less than an inch at prescribed points on the body--and sometimes just on the ear. The needles, which can be twirled or attached to electrical stimulators, are left in for about 20 minutes. A treatment may cost $100 or more.
For some people, the effects can be dramatic. Juan Londoño, 68, who monitors substance abuse for the Harris County Health Department in Texas, had recurring lower-back problems. One bout "was so bad I felt suicidal," he says. His wife encouraged him to try acupuncture, and "by the end of the week, I could do almost everything." Not everyone gets that kind of relief. Dan Kent, a 31-year old data manager in Portland, Ore., suffers from a herniated disk in his lower back. Acupuncture treatments over the past few months have given him "partial relief," he says. "It isn't groundbreaking."
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