Acupuncture for addicted patients with chronic histories of arrest. A pilot study of the Consortium Treatment Center.

Auricular acupuncture continues to gain popularity as an adjunct to substance abuse treatment. This report describes an outcomes study in a treatment center tailored to the needs of chronic repeat offenders. Thirty-seven patients who received acupuncture (AC) during the early weeks of treatment were followed for 180 days postadmission. Data were collected for four parameters: (1) program retention, (2) new arrests incurred, (3) drug-positive urinalysis results, and (4) number of days needed to progress from entry level to secondary level treatment. These data were compared to archived information from 49 no-acupuncture (NA) patients who had entered the program before acupuncture became available. Chi-square tests determined that AC patients exhibited significantly higher program retention than NA patients at 30 (p < 0.0001), 60 (p <.002), 90 (p <. 001), 120 (p <.007), and 150 (p <.031) days. At 180 days, a higher percentage of AC patients than NA patients remained in treatment, but the difference was not significant. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis determined that AC patients had significantly higher cumulative probability of remaining in treatment than did NA patients (p <.0021). In AC patients, there were decreased numbers of new arrests, drug-positive urinalysis results, and days needed to advance in treatment, but the differences were not significant. Fifty-one percent of all patients named methamphetamine as their primary drug of choice. Regardless of treatment group, methamphetamine-addicted patients exhibited significantly lower program retention than patients addicted to all other drugs (p <. 035). In methamphetamine-addicted patients, acupuncture improved program retention only up to 30 days (p <.021). These findings support addition of acupuncture to substance abuse treatment for criminal justice clients and indicate a need for acupuncture research focusing on withdrawal from methamphetamine.