Fighting Back Drug Thirst by Chinese Acupuncture

A Chinese scientist has developed a new non-drug therapy which enables narcotics addicts to overcome their addiction.

Han Jisheng, who is also a scientific consultant for the World Health Organization, invested a device called HAN's Acupoint NerveStimulator (HANS) which can eradicate a drug addict's craving for narcotics both physically and mentally.

Han said drug addicts having this therapy can stop using narcotics within two weeks and the chances of reoccurrence of the addiction are quite small.

With the help of Han's invention, more than 500 heroin addicts in the country have stop using drugs, and about 20 of them who took narcotics for two to five years have been away from drugs for more than one year.

When drug addicts feel the urge to take narcotics, they can use the walkman-like gadget with a low-frequency electric pulse to stimulate acupoints in both palms and forearms for half an hour, Han said.

As these acupoints are directly related to the central nervous system, this device helps narcotic addicts alleviate their physical and mental pain of withdrawal.

Mentally Abstinence of Drugs Possible

A thorny problem plaguing global scientists specialized in treatment of drug addiction is how to eradicate the psychological need of addicts for narcotics, Han said, considering the possibility of people's re-addiction with drugs are almost 100 percent.

To ward off the frequent attacks from drug addiction, most current therapies use medical replacements and force patients to rely on substitutive medicines all their life.

Accomplished in cerebral nerve study, Han said that drug addiction is actually a severe, chronic, and highly recurrent brain disease.

The specialty of the HANS therapy is that the treatment combining Chinese acupuncture with modern nerve science has, for the first time in the world, made the mentally abstinence of drugs possible.

Reward Designed for Addicts Who Can Resist Temptation

Statistics show that the population of drug addicts in China is growing at annual rate of 10 to 40 percent since 1990. Those officially registered stand around 861,000.

As the portable apparatus is priced around merely 1,000 yuan (about US$120), analysts believed that the HANS therapy may probably become a gospel for Chinese drug addicts once it is put to market.

To reward former addicts who can resist temptation of drugs for more than one year, Han and his wife have shelled out 100,000 yuan(about US$12,049) to establish an award.

Detailed criteria for screening out the award's qualified candidates are being designed, Han said.

( January 10, 2002)