Effects of Auricular Acupuncture Therapy at Adult Men on Smoking Cessation

Abstract

Objectives : This study was performed to examine the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture to adult men on smoking cessation. Methods : 47 smoking people was divided two groups : experimental group(treated with auricular acupuncture therapy, n=22) and control group(not treated with auricular acupuncture therapy, n=25). We used Lung point, Shenmen point and Endocrine point twice a week for 4 weeks to experimental group. We assessed the changes in amount of daily smoking, desire of smoking, taste of smoking and nicotine dependence as well as subjective symptoms were studied. Results : The experimental group showed significant decrease in amount of daily smoking, desire of smoking, taste of smoking and nicotine dependence. Subjective symptoms also showed improvement comparing to control group. Conclusions : Acupuncturing lung, shenmen, and endocrine point showed effectiveness on decreasing smoking rates and subjective symptoms. Therefore the auricular acupuncture therapy is expected to helpful to smoking cessation and improve the health of smokers.