Drug Abstinence Program:
The Natural Healing Research Foundation (NHRF) will be working with the University of Hawaii, Family Drug Court and Partners in Development on the second drug rehabilitation research project this summer.
The first pilot drug rehabilitation research project was carried out at the end of 2004. The results throughout the initial, residential stage of the program were encouraging. The quantitative clinical measures used to obtain baseline measurements of the pathophysiological effects of drug abuse (including methamphetamine and its derivative consisted on bundled laboratory blood tests that were tracked at the beginning, at mid-point and at the end. Random sampling was implemented. However, due to budgetary constraints, more sophisticated tests, i.e., SPECT and fMRI could not be utilized.
With the support of the State Legislature of Hawaii, University of Hawaii and Partners in Development, the pilot research project will have access to more sophisticated measures including fMRI. Doctors, psychologists and drug counselors from the University of Hawaii and NHRF will research how methamphetamine abuse affects the human brain, specifically the neuronal types including the dopamine cells. The objective is to focus the holistic, complementary approach to management of methamphetamine addiction by focusing measurement of regional brain glucose metabolism, which serves as a marker of brain function, to assess and quantify evidence of functional changes in methamphetamine abusers’ brain regions other than those innervated by dopamine cells as well as functional organ systems.
This is a prospective randomized controlled trial to examine outcomes of traditional rehabilitation methods and Natural Healing detoxification using Medical Qi Gong exercises for drug rehab, structured nutrition, reflexology, energetic psychology and other natural healing modalities to achieve detoxification and lay the basis for the on-going year program (second part of the program) and measure the subjects physical and mental craving.
The target of this study are juveniles (16-18yrs old), provided by Family Drug Court (Hawaii), suffering from crystal methamphetamine addiction and/or its effect. 10 will participate in a 21 day in-residence natural healing detoxification program. The control group will consist of 10 persons participating in conventional detoxification. During the 21 days, the students in the natural healing drug rehab project will be put through the entire program and follow through with the components of the program over a period of one year.
