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Background: Opioid use disorder occurs worldwide and creates an increasing economic burden and public health crisis. Some problems are associated with using opioid agonists; therefore, there is a need to develop non-opioid treatments to improve acute and long-term opioid withdrawal syndromes., Methods: We will enroll 100 participants with opioid use disorders receiving methadone maintenance treatment at an addiction treatment center and randomly allocate them to an experimental or control group. The experimental group will receive 12 sessions of light needle therapy within 4 weeks, while the control group will receive sham light needle treatment without any laser output. Urinary morphine levels were assessed before and after treatment. Participants will be asked to self-report their number of episodes or days of heroin use and heroin craving/refusal to use heroin in the previous week before and after treatment on a visual analogue scale score of 0 to 10. Quality of life will be reported using the Short Form-12v2 before and after 4 weeks of treatment. Pulse diagnosis and heart rate variability will be evaluated before and after treatment. Baseline patient characteristics will be compared between the groups using the independent t test and the χ2 test. Data between the 2 groups will be compared using generalized estimation equations, and paired t tests., Objective: This study aims to investigate the effect of adjuvant light needle therapy in patients with opioid use disorder on methadone maintenance treatment., (Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.)

Background: The incidence of opioid use disorder (OUD) is increasing worldwide, and the opioid-related overdose crisis is currently a major global challenge. This study investigated the effects of adjuvant laser meridian massage (LMM) in men with OUD undergoing methadone maintenance treatment (MMT)., Methods: A case-controlled study was conducted from February 2019 to April 2020. Fourteen men with OUD on MMT were enrolled from an addiction treatment center as an experimental group. An age-matched control group comprising 13 men was also enrolled. The experimental group received LMM on the back, including over the Bladder meridian and Governor Vessel, three times weekly for 4 weeks. The control group received only MMT. Urinary morphine levels, patients' self-reports of the number of episodes or days of heroin use, and visual analog scale scores for heroin craving/refusal to use heroin during the previous week were evaluated. Quality of life was reported using the Short Form (SF)-12v2., Results: The experimental group showed a significant decrease in heroin use (p < 0.05), whereas the control group showed a significant increase in heroin craving (p < 0.05). The SF-12v2 Health Survey revealed a significant improvement in physical health in the experimental group (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that laser meridian massage can be considered a safe, well-tolerated, and potentially useful adjuvant intervention for opioid use disorder., Competing Interests: Conflicts of interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Chang Gung University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Heroin addiction remains a significant public health problem worldwide, and relapse to heroin use following cessation of agonist maintenance treatment is common. The problems associated with use of opioid agonists mean that non-opioid therapies need to be developed to ameliorate acute and protracted opioid withdrawal syndromes., Methods: Fifteen men with opioid use disorder on methadone maintenance treatment have been enrolled from an addiction treatment center as an experimental group in this case-controlled study. This group is receiving laser meridian massage on the back, including the Bladder meridian and Governor Vessel, 3 times weekly for 4 weeks. An age-matched control group that does not receive laser meridian massage has also been enrolled. Urinary morphine levels are being checked before and after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. Subjects are requested to self-report their number of episodes or days of heroin use and 0 to 10-point visual analogue scale scores for heroin craving/refusal to use heroin during the previous week before and after 2 and 4 weeks of treatment. Quality of life will be reported using the Short Form-12v2 before and after 4 weeks of treatment. Pulse diagnosis will be recorded and heart rate variability calculated after one single treatment session. The baseline patient characteristics will be compared between the experimental and control groups using the independent t test and Chi-square test. Data are compared between the 2 groups using repeated-measures analysis of variance, generalized estimating equations, and the paired t test., Objective: To investigate the effect of adjuvant laser meridian massage in men with opioid use disorder on methadone maintenance treatment., Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04003077.