By Mary Jean Porter
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
Pueblo, Colorado 
January 25th 2007

 
Psychiatrist Dr. Libby Stuyt uses acupuncture in her work at Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo. She's medical director for the Circle Program, whose participants have a dual diagnosis of mental illness and substance abuse; many also are addicted to tobacco. She first started using acupuncture in 2000 to help them with smoking cessation because the program is smoke-free.

"There was some documentation that it helps," Stuyt says. "It does a whole lot more. I really like it."

The protocol she follows was developed by the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association in New York and based on the work of a psychiatrist who traveled to China and observed that when the lung point in the ear was needled, opiate-addicted people didn't have withdrawal symptoms.

Stuyt does auricular acupuncture - on the ear only - and inserts five needles per ear, into points for the sympathetic nervous system, kidney, liver, lung and a point called Shen Men or Spirit Gate.

Program participants sit quietly in a room with music playing for 45 minutes to an hour. The acupuncture is voluntary, but most of the 20 Circle Program participants choose to do it four days a week, she says. When she asked why, they said they find it relaxing.

Stuyt just published a study of her findings; patients reported sleeping better, having more energy, improved concentration and focus, and help in managing pain.

"We do it on patients and on staff. It's amazing to watch ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) patients who can't sit still. It's very helpful for them: They can sit for a total hour with needles in their ear, and then it (the effects) starts to bleed over into other areas of their behavior." Stuyt says the mental health institute had someone come in and train seven psychiatrists in acupuncture; she's a trainer now.

"In the two-week training I went through, I learned some very interesting things about Oriental medicine and the differences between it and Western medicine. I think a combination of both is very powerful. Acupuncture is an added benefit.

"There's a lot of doctors who bad-mouth this. They should be more open-minded. Acupuncturists do a good job. They go through very rigorous training."

Stuyt herself sees an acupuncturist for pain management.