NADA: National Acupuncture Detoxification Association

" Acu Detox", substance abuse treatment with Acupuncture started in the seventies in New York South Bronx Lincoln Hospital .

It all started with a neighborhood uprising where people took over the Lincoln Hospital and decided they were entitled to basic health, hygiene and social stability.

Drug addiction was a major issue and a methadone program was started after a grant was obtained. This is when Dr. Michael Smith one of the founders of N.A.D.A decided to start "Detox " treatment with Acupuncture as a substitute to methadone.

In the early eighties N.A.D.A program came to the attention of Justice officials who finally collaborated founding the now well-known "Drug Courts". Drug Courts and N.A.D.A program are nowadays cooperating nationwide.

With a huge load of volunteer work, clinical research and experience the treatment evolved from a western style semiotic approach to the actual more global assessment of substance addiction and its Acupuncture therapy.

It is now clear that substance abuse acupuncture treatment is not merely symptomatic, its therapeutic aim lies beyond detoxification, in fact the substance abuser experiences a total and global physical and psychic reorganization. This approach is a legacy of Chinese Medicine with its global clinical perception and more than twenty years of N.A.D.A experience.

N.A.D.A. is expanding on every continent and organizing worldwide conferences where members can discuss the result of their work.