Opioid addiction is a chronic brain disorder characterized by a series of withdrawalsymptoms in behavioral, psychological, and neurobiological manifestations.Withdrawal symptoms are the main causeof relapse after periods of abstinence; thus,the treatment is focused on abstinence symptoms. Due to most of all types of opioidagonist drugs carry a potential for addiction and exacerbation of withdrawalsymptoms, nondrug methods have great potentials i n clinical applications.Electro acupuncture (EA), as a novel nonpharmacological approach, combined withmethadone has a long term positive efficacy on treating addict ion . Therefore, we designed a protocol to evaluate the adjuvant effect of EA for treating withdrawalsymptoms of opioid addiction addiction.MethodTo review reports of relevant clinical trials, we will searchEnglish language databases(EMBASE, PubMed, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) andChinese databases (Chinese Biomedical Lit eratures, China National KnowledgeInfrastructure, Wanfang, and VIP). We will collect documents from the earliestpossible date up t to May 2020. We will also search online trial registries such as ClinicalTrials.gov (ClinicalTrials.gov/), the European Medicine Agency(www.ema.europa.eu/ema/), and WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform(www.who.int/ictrp). We will select randomized controlled trials RCT forwithdrawal from opioid addiction involving EA methadone and methadone alonetreatment. W e will use psychological assessment scales to evaluate treatment majoroutcomes which include numerous components such as OWS, VAS, HAMD, HAMA;then u rinalysis and m ethadone dosage also will be measure as the additional outcomes.Finally, RevMan5 software will be used for literature quality evaluation and dataana lysis.Result: To evaluate the efficacy of EA in combination therapy by observing the outcomes of corresponding scale, urinalysis and decreasing methadone.Conclusion: This protocol will be used to evaluate the efficacy and safety of EA in combination with methadone in treatment of opioid addiction withdrawal symptomsAbbreviationsOpioid dependence, OWS=Opiate Withdrawal Scale, VAS=Craving Visual Analog Scale, PWSS=Post-withdrawal symptoms Scale, HAMD=Hamilton Depression Scale, HAMA=Hamilton Anxiety Scale, RCTs =Randomized Controlled Trials, EA=Electrical Acupuncture, PRISMA=Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses.
A Meta-Analysis of Acupuncture Combined with Opioid Receptor Agonists for Treatment of Opiate-Withdrawal Symptoms