Student: Shi Qi Lam

Instructor: Dr. Olga Reznikova

Course No. WS655

Course Title: Clinical Research Design and Statistics

Date: 28 Feb. 2011

Is Auricular Acupuncture Beneficial in the Inpatient Treatment of Substance-Abusing

Patients?

The aim of this pilot study was to investigate several questions: whether auricular

acupuncture can be successfully integrated in treating the multiplied diagnosed patients

on a psychiatric inpatient unit, which subgroups of patients show to respond most from

this treatment, how auricular acupuncture affects patient agreement with treatment and

course after discharge, what clinical and administrative issues arise during acupuncture

treatment, and how acupuncture is acknowledged by patients and staff. The hypothesis

was that it is true that auricular acupuncture beneficial in treatment substance abusing

patients.

The predictor variable is auricular acupuncture consist of 5 ear points. The

primary outcomes were defined as the significant decrease in signs and symptoms in drug

withdrawal and dependency. The study was planned, approved, supervised, and analyzed

in the psychiatric inpatient service at North Shore University Hospital at Glen Cove.

This is a prospective clinical study, which lasted for a 11 months period of treatment.

Total of 77 patients (suffering from a concurrent psychiatric disorder and chemical abuse

or dependency problem) were voluntarily offered acupuncture: 30 of the patients refused

or had four or lesser treatments (control group), 47 of them had 5 or more treatments

(treatment group). The study show that the treatment group did significantly better than

the control group as by the following findings: The subjects were treated by acupuncture

has 75% of fully compliance vs. only 20% of those who received four or less treatments.
At the same time, 40% of the control group were non compliant or signed out against

medical advice vs. only 2% of the treatment group. This study has been supported by

statistical analysis and all comparisons were made two-tailed, and the P-values were

<0.001, which is considered to be statistically significant. The results of this study

suggest that the auricular NADA protocol treatment was efficacious in improving

impatient detoxification and rehabilitation after a 22 days period of treatment.

Advantages of the study:

 There doesn’t seem to be any conflicts of interest in this study

 The use of auricular acupuncture to treat substance abusing patients is effective,

low-cost, and safe.

 There doesn’t appear to be any ethical concerns regarding this study. In fact, they

received approval from the local ethics committee, and all subjects gave written

consent before entering the study. They were also informed that they were free to

withdraw from the study at any time.

 Acupuncture helps patients decrease their drug dependency, anxiety and

depression.

 I believe there is validity because the study assessed exactly what it was designed

to assess.

 There were no adverse effects reported by the subjects or observed by the

physicians.

 The P-values were <0.001 which is considered statistically significant.

 Statistical analysis was thorough.

Disadvantages of the study:

 The study could have obtained a larger subject sample; at least 100 would have

been best.

 Only 5 ear points were used, which is not representative of a true acupuncture

treatment protocol.

 This study was not blinded. Double-blind controlled studies are difficult to

conduct when treatment is individualized to each subject.

 It doesn’t state who is funding this study.

 It did not address or control for multiple important patient variables, for example,

severity of addiction, differences in social-economical status, comorbid Axis I or

II diagnosis, race, sex, marital status, education status, etc.

 There were no comparison of patient variable among the control and treatment

groups