Tapering - Is Bio-Reduction Therapy a scam?

[ThirdEyeFloond]

Originally Posted by Spucky

Is "Pro-Adicta" http://www.proadicta.ch/ the same scam with a different name?

It doesn't appear to be although I've only read the english abstract. They seem focused only on opioid addiction and the described method of using electrostimulation to make the body release natural beta-endorphines is documented in the scientific litterature.

Development of opioid tolerance with repeated transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation administration


Prasant Chandran and Kathleen A. Sluka,

Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, Neuroscience Graduate Program, Pain Research Program, 2600 Steindler Building, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA

Received 13 June 2002; accepted 2 October 2002. ; Available online 23 January 2003.
Abstract

The analgesia produced by low and high frequency transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is mediated by the release of μ- or δ-opioids, respectively in the central nervous system. Repeated administration of either μ- or δ-opioid agonists induce opioid analgesic tolerance. Thus, we tested if repeated administration of TENS (either low or high frequency) in rats leads to a development of tolerance to its antihyperalgesic effects with a corresponding cross-tolerance to μ- and δ-opioid agonists. Unilateral knee joint inflammation (3% carrageenan) was induced in adult Sprague–Dawley rats. Either low (4 Hz) or high frequency (100 Hz) TENS was administered for 6 days (20 min daily) to the inflamed knee joint under halothane anesthesia. The no TENS controls were administered anesthesia only for the same period. Withdrawal threshold to mechanical stimuli was measured before and after administration of TENS on each day and also on the sixth day. A separate group of animals was tested for tolerance to either the μ-opioid agonist, morphine (1.32, 3.95, 13.2 nmol/10 ml, intrathecal (i.t.)) or the δ-opioid agonist, SNC-80 (6, 20, 60, 120 nmol/10 ml, i.t.) 30 min after i.t. administration. The reduced mechanical withdrawal threshold following the induction of inflammation was reversed by the application of TENS. However, repeatedly administering either low or high frequency TENS for 6 days, lead to a diminution in its effectiveness in reversing the ipsilateral secondary mechanical hyperalgesia by the fourth day. The effects of morphine in the low and SNC-80 in the high frequency TENS groups were significantly less than the group that did not receive TENS. On the other hand, morphine and SNC-80 were similar to the no TENS control in the high and low frequency TENS groups, respectively. Thus, repeated administration of low and high frequency TENS leads to a development of opioid tolerance with a corresponding cross-tolerance to i.t. administered μ- and δ-opioid agonists, respectively. Clinically, it can be inferred that a treatment schedule of repeated daily TENS administration should be avoided to possibly obviate the induction of tolerance.

J Pak Med Assoc. 2008 Dec;58(12):667-71.
A randomized effectiveness trial of methadone, TENS and methadone plus TENS in management of opiate withdrawal symptoms.

Bakhshani NM, Lashkaripour K, Sadjadi SA.

Psychiatric and Clinical Psychology Department, School of Medicine, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, Iran.

OBJECTIVE: To compare effectiveness of methadone, TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) and methadone+ TENS in management of opiate withdrawal symptoms. METHODS: The study was conducted in Zahedan Psychiatric center in 2005. Forty five opiate addicted men meeting DSM-IV criteria for substance dependency disorder participated in the study after informed consent. The subjects were randomly assigned to 3 treatment groups. Patients of first group were given 20-60 mg methadone daily, tapered over a period of 2 weeks. Patients of second group received daily 10-30 mg methadone, tapered similar to first group in combination with TENS treatment. The other 15 patients (third group) experienced low frequency (2 Hz) TENS for two weeks. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in severity and number of withdrawal symptoms between the 3 groups prior to the start of treatments. But, severity and number of symptoms were significantly higher in TENS group (third group) in third day. In addition, 10 patients of TENS-group left the treatment programme after 5 days. The results showed that methadone only and Methadone plus TENS for the management of opioid detoxification were effective treatments. The comparison of number and severity of withdrawal symptoms in the methadone group and methadone+TENS group by seventh day didn't show significant differences. But, number and severity of withdrawal symptoms in methadone+TENS group were significantly lower than methadone group during tenth and fourteenth days. CONCLUSION: The results provide support for the use of methadone alone and methadone plus TENS for managing opiate withdrawal, but TENS by itself has no significant effect on withdrawal symptoms. However, TENS in combination with a moderate dose of methadone could reduce severity of withdrawal symptoms effectively.

Suppression of cue-induced heroin craving and cue-reactivity by single-trial transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation at 2 Hz.

Zhong F, Wu LZ, Han JS.

Neuroscience Research Institute, Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of 2 Hz transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) to reduce cue-induced heroin craving and the corresponding cardiovascular responses. Seventy heroin addicts with at least 1 month of abstinence were enrolled and randomly divided into two groups of 35, to receive single-trial 2 Hz TENS (TENS group) or mock TENS (mock group) during experimental procedure, respectively. They were required to express their degree of craving by visual analog scale before and after the presentation of a video-cue, and after TENS treatment, which lasted for 30 minutes. Heart rate and arterial blood pressure were simultaneously monitored in 56 cases, with 28 in each group. Results show that in mock group, video-cue induced a dramatic increase of craving score, which did not return to baseline in 150 minutes, whereas in the TENS group, 2 Hz TENS treatment produced a significant decrease of craving, reaching baseline in 90 minutes. Video-cue induced a significant increase of heart rate and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which remained elevated for at least 60 minutes in the mock group; whereas in the TENS group, they returned to baseline immediately after the termination of TENS. These results indicate that the craving induced by a heroin-related cue can be immediately and significantly suppressed, and the cardiovascular activation totally abolished by a single-trial 2 Hz TENS for 30 minutes.

Addict Biol. 2008 Mar;13(1):47-51.
Chronic morphine-induced neuronal morphological changes in the ventral tegmental area in rats are reversed by electroacupuncture treatment.

Chu NN, Xia W, Yu P, Hu L, Zhang R, Cui CL.

Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, China.

The aim of this study was to observe the effect of electroacupuncture (EA) on chronic morphine-induced neuronal morphological changes in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in rats at electron-microscopic level. Fourteen days of administering escalating doses of morphine induced pathological morphological changes of neurons in the VTA: the rough endoplasmic reticulum swelled, membrane configuration of the nucleus and mitochondria blurred, and structure of myelin sheath changed. Both 2 and 100 Hz EA treatment reversed the morphological alterations induced by chronic morphine administration. The findings provide new evidence that EA may serve as a potential therapy in treating opiate addiction.

Suppression of morphine withdrawal by electroacupuncture in rats: dynorphin and kappa-opioid receptor implicated.

Wu LZ, Cui CL, Tian JB, Ji D, Han JS.

Neuroscience Research Institute, Beijing Medical University, China.

Our previous work has demonstrated that 100-Hz electroacupuncture (EA) or 100-Hz transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) was very effective in ameliorating the morphine withdrawal syndrome in rats and humans. The mechanism was obscure. (1) Rats were made dependent on morphine by repeated morphine injections (5-140 mg/kg, s.c., twice a day) for eight days. They were then given 100-Hz EA for 30 min 24 h after the last injection of morphine. A marked increase in tail flick latency (TFL) was observed. This effect of 100-Hz EA could be blocked by naloxone (NX) at 20 mg/kg, but not at 1 mg/kg, suggesting that 100-Hz EA-induced analgesia observed in morphine-dependent rats is mediated by kappa-opioid receptors. (2) A significant decrease of the concentration of dynorphin A (1-17) immunoreactivity (-ir) was observed in the spinal perfusate in morphine-dependent rats, that could be brought back to normal level by 100-Hz EA. (3) 100-Hz EA was very effective in suppressing NX-precipitated morphine withdrawal syndrome. This effect of EA could be prevented by intrathecal administration of nor-BNI (2.5 micrograms/20 microliters), a kappa-opioid receptor antagonist, or dynorphin A (1-13) antibodies (25 micrograms/20 microliters) administered 10 min prior to EA. In conclusion, while the steady-state spinal dynorphin release is low in morphine-dependent rats, it can be activated by 100-Hz EA stimulation, which may be responsible for eliciting an analgesic effect and ameliorating morphine withdrawal syndrome, most probably via interacting with kappa-opioid receptor at spinal level.

Reputation Comments on this post:

Very interesting post/abstract.