"My son's school approached me and recommended he be tested for a learning disability," says Linda, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect her son. "He was showing signs of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Mostly he was hyperactive, but he also had behavioral problems as well as problems paying attention."

Her options were limited, especially since she did not think drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate hydrochloride) were the answer.

"I was not crazy about Ritalin or any other drug," Linda says. "We wanted to try something else."

So Linda and her son turned to a nontraditional solution to their problem: acupuncture.

"Acupuncture can often help persons with learning disabilities such as ADD [attention deficit disorder]/ADHD, dyslexia, or stuttering," says Dr. Bryan Frank, president of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture. "Improvement is commonly seen in improved learning, more appropriate behavior, attention to task that is longer in duration and with less distraction, et cetera."
"Success stories are many," says Dr. Nader Soliman, director of both the Washington Alternative Medicine Center and the Integrated Pain Management Center in Rockville, Maryland. He gives two: "A dyslexic child needed only one treatment to get rid of his dyslexia and he's had no recurrence. An adult patient with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been able to get rid of his problem with no recurrence as well."

The people Dr. Soliman describes are part of a growing minority who have turned to acupuncture to treat a learning disability. Although the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has only agreed that acupuncture treatment relieves postoperative and chemotherapy nausea and vomiting, nausea of pregnancy, and postoperative dental pain, the general public is pushing the envelope and finding other--although not conclusively effective--uses for it as well. At the top of that list is learning disabilities.

The public's interest in acupuncture is growing, and the scientific community is trying to keep up. In fact, research showing that acupuncture is effective in the treatment of learning disabilities may be right around the corner.

A NIH-funded study was recently completed (it has not yet been published) that looked at laser acupuncture treatment for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

"Our results indicate good response [to acupuncture] in mild and moderately affected children, ages 7 to 9," says Dr. May Loo, assistant clinical professor at Stanford Medical Center and director of the neurodevelopmental program at Santa Clara County Valley Medical Center in California.

She also says she believes that these results could one day provide a nonpharmaceutical answer to learning disabilities. "The implication is tremendous in being able to treat children using more natural treatment without side effects," Dr. Loo says.

Even if acupuncture proves to be effective in treating learning disabilities, how it works still remains unclear.

"I am not sure anyone can say what physiology lies behind this, though undoubtedly it involves regulating the central nervous system," says Dr. Frank.
　　He says that, generally, acupuncture for learning disorders is done in one particular area of the body. "Much of this type of work [to help treat learning disabilities] is actually done where all or most of the acupuncture treatment is in the ear," says Dr. Frank. "This is called auricular acupuncture or auriculotherapy.

Acupuncturists say they believe that the body is fully represented within the ear and that doing acupuncture in that area can treat any part of the body. "The ear is a microsystem in which the whole body is represented," says Dr. Soliman, who notes that this all-encompassing concept is similar to the notion that undergirds foot reflexology.

So anyone with an ear can try it, but for whom might it work?

"I think good candidates include those who have been under conventional treatment [for a learning disability] as well as those who have not yet started medications," Dr. Frank says. "Many will be able to do better and decrease or eliminate medications. Others can perhaps avoid starting them in the first place."

And for candidates such as these, a series of acupuncture treatments works best. "Commonly, we recommend a treatment series of six to ten acupuncture treatments for chronic conditions, which include these types [learning disabilities]," says Dr. Frank. "Over the treatment span of 1 to 2 months, response may . . . [vary from] dramatic to none at all."

But he notes that even if there is no response to this treatment, there is no risk. "The risks of acupuncture are minimal with a well-qualified person [acupuncturist]," Dr. Frank says. "While not all persons will improve, many will, and I think that acupuncture is warranted to try to improve the patient and eliminate or decrease the use of medications."

Linda and her family agree that acupuncture can help because now her son's learning disability is virtually gone. "We don't have a problem anymore," says Linda. "He's done very well, better in school, and I recommend this solution to others who are dealing with the same situation."

From Heather Hatfield, Medical Writer