Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.
Front Med. 2011 Jun;5(2):141-50. doi: 10.1007/s11684-011-0136-8. Epub 2011 Jun 22.
Drug addiction is a chronic brain disorder characterized by withdrawal symptoms that occur during drug abstinence and a high tendency of relapse. Compared with the currently available pharmacological interventions, acupuncture therapy has the potential to help drug addicts stay away from drugs without major adverse side effects. It has taken decades of research to optimize the parameters of electrical acupoint stimulation for detoxification and for relapse prevention, as well as to establish a safe and easy procedure by which drug addicts can use it on themselves. The discovery that acupuncture can trigger the release of opioid substances from the brain in the 1970s provided the inspiration. Following this, basic research on animals made it possible to understand the mechanisms of action and establish the procedure for treating drug addictions. This article reviews the past, present, and foreseeable future regarding the use of acupuncture-related technique for the treatment of opiate addiction from the perspective of translational medicine.
药物成瘾是一种慢性脑部疾病，其特征是在戒断药物期间出现戒断症状，以及高复发倾向。与现有的药物干预相比，针灸疗法有可能帮助吸毒者远离毒品，而不会产生重大的不良反应。经过几十年的研究，已经优化了电穴位刺激的参数，以进行解毒和预防复发，以及建立一种安全且易于让吸毒者自行使用的程序。这一发现是在 20 世纪 70 年代发现针灸可以刺激大脑释放阿片类物质之后得出的。此后，对动物的基础研究使人们能够了解作用机制，并建立治疗药物成瘾的程序。本文从转化医学的角度回顾了过去、现在和可预见的未来，探讨了针灸相关技术在治疗阿片类药物成瘾方面的应用。
