Wheatley (2007) treatment of offenders - acupuncture

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

To assess the effectiveness of ear acupuncture in treating substance abuse of prisoners

Question 2

Sample

Answer 2

350 prisoners in 6 high security prisons who received acupuncture and standard care program (FOCUS) with a control group who only received the standard care programme.

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

Two trained practitioners worked with groups of 10-15 prisoners in a relaxed setting - fine needles inserted into 5 acupuncture points in prisoners ears for 40mins, they then returned to normal duties

qualitative and quantitative data was collected.

Question 4

Results

Answer 4

Qualitative - prisoners reported improvements in wellbeing:

• better sleep
• improved relaxation
• better coping skills
• reduced craving for nicotine
• amended cognition
• health improvements

Quantitative data:
70% reduction in drug related incidents
41% reduction in serious incident reports
42% reduction in positive drug tests (mandatory)

Question 5

Conclusions

Answer 5

The author believes that there is enough evidence for the effectiveness of ear acupuncture to expand the delivery of the program throughout the prison system and believes that acupuncture works as a complementary therapy with other programmes.