Acupuncture as a Treatment for Substance Abuse in Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Adolescence is an important period of physical, psychological, cognitive, and social growth. However, it is also common for adolescence to experiment with substances as part of growing up. Multiple surveys were conducted in a group of adolescence from in United States between 2002 and 2013. The results of these surveys consistently showing a significant and yet progressive increasing number of teens having abused illegal substance and/or nonmedical prescription pain medications despite of multiple task forces have been in place to prevent substance abused. Several risks factors, such as age of early exposure, victims of assault, witness violence familial substance abuse behavior, exposure to violence, compulsive obsessive disorder, depression, anxiety, and/or posltraumatic stress disorder, are linked to substance abuse in adolescences. Teens who abuse substances frequently also suff'ering from other disorders. Thus when dealing with teens having drug addition or abuse substances, a comprehensive evaluation is necessary prior to prescribing treatment. Moreover, a workable treatment strategy should be applied to achieve the desirable target in managing teens with drug addition problem. Both pharmacological interventions and several behavioral therapies have shown promising results in treating coexisting conditions among teenage drug abusers. Complementary and alternative treatments such as acupuncture, hypnosis, and meditation also have been used as a treatment and/or an adjunctive treatment for substance abuse as well as psychological illness in these clients. The focus of this chapter is to discuss the use of acupuncture as a treatment or adjunctive treatments for addition and its effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)