hi everyone,
i heard that a tens machine can take away up to 80% of w/d pains
has anyone tried this or heard anyone who has??, apparently they tried with a few addicts in scotland and it turned out a success, i was thinking about getting one for b/f who is on heroin. but would be grateful on any info about it before splashing out,
thanks
Hey Elle,
Wow, that's news to me.....naw I never heard that.....hey, if it works that'd be awesome........I had one after a car accident, but from that I can't see it really helping.........but who knows?
Elle, alot of people say accupuncture really and truly helps with withdrawl...maybe it acts in a similar way........not sure how much they cost, but I'd get the accupuncture first.
Hope we find out.......come back on if ya wanna share or need an ear!
Wow, that's news to me.....naw I never heard that.....hey, if it works that'd be awesome........I had one after a car accident, but from that I can't see it really helping.........but who knows?
Elle, alot of people say accupuncture really and truly helps with withdrawl...maybe it acts in a similar way........not sure how much they cost, but I'd get the accupuncture first.
Hope we find out.......come back on if ya wanna share or need an ear!
if it does then that is a good thing coz those wd stomach cramps and leg aches are f***** drive me crazy - itz them more than anything else that make me go and score.
Is TENS machine that thing where you put the little patches on your body an they r attached to wires an then you turn up the power and...BUZZ..you get a nice little shok? If irt iz they are great fun!!! I put them on my m8 and woz havin a great laugh wiv those little thingz!! Turning it up qiuick and watching him jump!! Ha ha!!
Seriously tho - if that works then im all 4 it....anything to get rid of those wdz.
See ya.
TM07 ;@) happy 2 day
Is TENS machine that thing where you put the little patches on your body an they r attached to wires an then you turn up the power and...BUZZ..you get a nice little shok? If irt iz they are great fun!!! I put them on my m8 and woz havin a great laugh wiv those little thingz!! Turning it up qiuick and watching him jump!! Ha ha!!
Seriously tho - if that works then im all 4 it....anything to get rid of those wdz.
See ya.
TM07 ;@) happy 2 day
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Last Updated: Friday, 16 June 2006, 17:15 GMT 18:15 UK
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Electric therapy trial for heroin
Barry Philips interview
A drug addict who was on heroin for five years has claimed he has been cured by a revolutionary treatment.
Barry Philips, 24, from Kilmarnock, said Neuro-Electric Therapy, which sends electric pulses through the brain, had made him drug-free.
He said the treatment enabled him to come off heroin in only five days.
The Scottish Executive is now backing further research into NET which was being discussed at a conference in Kirkcaldy on Friday.
Ken Barrie, director of Alcohol and Drug Studies at Paisley University, said the treatment could be used as a first step.
However, drugs expert, Dr Laurence Gruer, director of public health science at NHS Health Scotland, urged caution, saying NET appeared to treat withdrawal symptoms rather than the addiction itself.
One of the benefits of NET is that it allows addicts to cope with feelings of cravings
Prof Neil McKeganey
Full interview
During Neuro-Electric Therapy (NET), self-adhesive electrodes are applied behind the ear.
A pocket-sized stimulator is used continuously for six to 10 days and pulses an electric current through the brain to help stabilise its natural balance.
NET is said to reduce cravings of drug users within one or two weeks.
Mr Philips said he had tried four times without success to come off heroin, using both methadone and cold turkey.
He said his withdrawal symptoms lasted for a much shorter period when he used NET and he had remained clean since the treatment in February.
Wider sample
"It was a lot faster than any other 'rattle' I've ever done," he said.
"Within four days I was sleeping - a full night's sleep, which was really surprising.
"Within five days I was really starting to get better and on the sixth day I never even needed the box - that was when I was feeling totally fine again.
"I've not even thought about drugs - not just heroin, anything at all."
Independent drugs expert Professor Neil McKeganey, of the drugs misuse research centre at Glasgow University, said NET was worth a proper study.
He said: "One of the reasons it's terribly difficult for addicts to get off these drugs is the cravings are very strong.
Mr Philips said NET enabled him to come off heroin in five days
"One of the benefits of NET, at least as it has been claimed, is that it allows addicts to cope with those feelings of cravings."
However, Prof McKeganey warned that it was not a long-term cure and addicts needed continuous support to ensure they remained clean.
He also said fundamental questions needed to be asked before making NET more widely available.
Drug charity The Third Step carried out the trial with Mr Philips.
Dr Gruer said the treatment was a first step but appeared to only deal with withdrawal symptoms.
"I think this is in the same ball park as acupuncture which produces some stimuli which stops the brain from feeling so raw and bad," he told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme.
"We have to be rather cautious about being too optimistic about this particular approach.
"It may help one or two people but whether it helps a large number is another matter."
'Early stage'
Mr Barrie told the programme: "It is worth pursuing anything that's going to assist people to make changes. This is clearly an early stage in the process.
"We would also need to look further on into the processes, the social support, the psychological support, which people need in the longer term to cure their addiction."
The executive is giving support and advice to set up a clinical research project in an effort to see if the treatment is valid for a much wider sample of addicts.
Mr Philips said he was positive about his own future.
"I just hope it continues to be like this, back to feeling amazing again, waking up with a smile on my face," he said.
Mr Philips was describing his experiences at a conference at St Bryce Kirk, Kirkcaldy, on Friday.
Other speakers included Prof McKeganey and George Patterson, the widower of the surgeon whose work in the 1970s helped develop NET.
A Scottish Executive spokesperson said: "The first minister noted the anecdotal evidence of benefit of the therapy.
"However, any decision on the way forward would have to be based on clear, scientific evidence of the treatments biological effects.
"The next step is that they should prepare a research proposal, which will then be considered by independent scientists.
"If they are convinced by the research proposal, then consideration may be given to a pilot."
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BBC NEWS:VIDEO AND AUDIO
Watch the experts debate the treatment
SEE ALSO
Trial for drug overdose treatment
11 Jun 06 | Glasgow and West
Overdose drug plan is considered
05 Jun 06 | Glasgow and West
Call to trial heroin on the NHS
05 Jun 06 | Scotland
Heroin warning after deaths rise
16 May 06 | Glasgow and West
Fears over drugs overdose deaths
08 Aug 05 | Scotland
RELATED INTERNET LINKS
Scottish Executive
Glasgow University
Paisley University
NHS Health Scotland
ive posted the page i was reading about the trial with the tens machine, that was on the news, it sounds really good.?? im not that good with pc so just copyed the page.
ive been looking up prices some seem to be really cheap ive seen them here in scotland from 30pounds onwards?? i would try anything to help him and this sounds to good to be true that why im trying to find out as much as i can first.
ive been looking up prices some seem to be really cheap ive seen them here in scotland from 30pounds onwards?? i would try anything to help him and this sounds to good to be true that why im trying to find out as much as i can first.
Very intersting.....
I know that the hubby has something they do at the accupuncturist that detoxes, and helps with the bit of wd he is having from weaning from sub. I so am going to make him ask what they might think of this. When they place the needles for this it is in the area of the ear and on the ear. Makes sense with where the tens pads are placed.
I am not sure though how safe this might be for anyone without a doctor being in the mix. Sending pulses of current to the brain area like that might cause a bad reaction for some. In the trial phase they will be able, or should be able to find those this isn't good to use on....
I would think twice with anything experiment and in trial. I love the promise it gives, and the simplicity but without more info it might be dangerous.....
I know that the hubby has something they do at the accupuncturist that detoxes, and helps with the bit of wd he is having from weaning from sub. I so am going to make him ask what they might think of this. When they place the needles for this it is in the area of the ear and on the ear. Makes sense with where the tens pads are placed.
I am not sure though how safe this might be for anyone without a doctor being in the mix. Sending pulses of current to the brain area like that might cause a bad reaction for some. In the trial phase they will be able, or should be able to find those this isn't good to use on....
I would think twice with anything experiment and in trial. I love the promise it gives, and the simplicity but without more info it might be dangerous.....
REAL STORIES
about how one of the ENART (Scenar, Prologue, Enart)
devices has helped in a critical situation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPUTER AGE PROBLEM
Mike Kleinsteuber
United Kingdom
I have used Scenar and Prologue extensively in my family environment and have found their results to be close to remarkable, particularly for problems such as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)*, tendon issues, headaches and other skeletal-muscular problems.
Injuries appear to recover much more quickly than with any other treatment and most symptoms have an immediate reduction in severity. I cannot recommend them more highly for both public and medical use.
* The boom in computer use has spawned an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, a potentially disabling disorder of the wrist, hand and arm (Decreasing hand strength, Wristing pain that radiates to the forearm, shoulders, neck and chest, Numbness in the hand, resulting in weakness or clumsiness). You could be at risk if you to do repetitive tasks with your hands for long stretches of time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"COLD TURKEY"
Ian Ballantine-Gray
United Kingdom
Dear All,
This note is intended for all potential users of the ENART suite of therapies but focusing on our experience of the personal devices range. Up until 8 months ago we had neither heard of nor used the Scenar devices. Our only experience of any type of electro-therapy was the use of a T.E.N.s machine to mask the chronic pain of a pair of prolapsed disc in my lumber region (discs No. 3&4) and this had waned in it's effectiveness as my body slowly adapted to the fixed wave pulses produced by such devices (it worked well over 18months and the rapidly degraded in effective pain relief). In essence we were left with chemical pain controls (mainly opiate based) to control the all encompassing pain.
My partner first put me in contact with the Scenar devices after she had had the opportunity to have a knee injury healed by one. The cost of therapy was restrictive but, with help from the people at Invet, we found that buying a small, personal device made much sounder economics (and without bi-weekly trips to the therapist made our personal lives less hectic). We decided on a 'personal' device, remember, we knew nothing of this technology or its application a few weeks before so what we really needed was just a 'point and go' device with which we could self treat or treat each other.
The wealth of information provided Invet on both the devices operation and the various methodologies of application gave us the full confidence to start our treatments immediately. Little did we know or expect the extent of positive changes that we (and that means all the family) were to experience after an inordinately short period of exposure to the device.
I found that within 3 days of having repeated treatments on my spasmed lower back that the constant attendant pain had diminished. I also found that I was withdrawing from my pain killers. I suffered all the symptoms of Opiate withdrawal whilst still taking my usual doses of pain control.
Understand me now because this really threw me at the time, the pain killers I was on were of the opiate suite of drugs. These molecules mimic the shape of the natural Endorphin molecule that we all produce.
One of the Endorphins main functions within the body is to help lessen the experience of pain. The receptor sites that receive the Endorphins have an uniquely shaped surface that fits the shape of the Endorphin molecule like a glove and it is that perfect fit which then "opens the channel" to the brain so it can alter our perceptions of our external inputs (pain in this case). The opiate suite of drugs (including Morphine and Heroin) manage to fool the receptor sites into thinking it's an Endorphin that's nestled into it's surface and fire off the 'pain control system' in an ad hoc kind of way.
The results are close to the 'real thing' but ask anyone who knows about treating chronic pain with these impostors and they will tell you that there are always accompanying debilitating effects which, at times, can be so severe as to negate the value of the drug. You take the drug to lessen the pain so you can be more active but the drug so 'drugs' you that you can't do anything because of these stupefying effects (no way to live a life).
What Scenar had promoted within me was an astounding chain of events. It had drawn my 'minds eye' to the affected region, my minds eye then recognised the scope of the problems and started to effect repairs. A part of these repairs was the production and deployment of Endorphins.
By the time my daily doses of pain control was ingested and in my blood stream my receptor sites had become swamped by the ready supply of Endorphins and so there was effectively 'no room at the Inn' for the man made copies which were then passed out of my body. I have spent months contemplating what happened during that first week this is the only way I can explain having my 'cold turkey' experience whilst still taking my normal doses of Opiate pain control.
Suffice to say I ceased taking my pain control and now only rarely resort to them and only as a short term 'fix', Scenar now does the real work and I feel sure in the fullness of time it will enable my body to effect the best, fullest repair it is able to perform for my lower back injury... amongst the many other repairs/rebalancing I will be requiring our Scenar to do for us. This is only a small part of what Scenar has done for me thus far.
The rest of my family have also undergone miraculous changes whilst using Scenar. Some of these are medically documented, like my partners recent ascendancy to 20/20 vision. She had been affected by measles at an early age and this had scared the eyes muscles, after 30 yrs of wearing glasses she no longer needs them. She has also grown in stature and is no longer the shortest sister (medical records show a 1" increase!).
Our son, Luke, suffers from a genetic condition known as Trisomi 10p+ and since commencing Scenar therapy on him he is a much more engaging, focused and content young boy (his special school records will adequately illustrate his gains) We feel he is on the edge of major changes in his development and that Scenar has enabled his body to muster the resources necessary for this developmental 'spurt'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
about how one of the ENART (Scenar, Prologue, Enart)
devices has helped in a critical situation
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
COMPUTER AGE PROBLEM
Mike Kleinsteuber
United Kingdom
I have used Scenar and Prologue extensively in my family environment and have found their results to be close to remarkable, particularly for problems such as RSI (Repetitive Strain Injury)*, tendon issues, headaches and other skeletal-muscular problems.
Injuries appear to recover much more quickly than with any other treatment and most symptoms have an immediate reduction in severity. I cannot recommend them more highly for both public and medical use.
* The boom in computer use has spawned an epidemic of repetitive strain injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, a potentially disabling disorder of the wrist, hand and arm (Decreasing hand strength, Wristing pain that radiates to the forearm, shoulders, neck and chest, Numbness in the hand, resulting in weakness or clumsiness). You could be at risk if you to do repetitive tasks with your hands for long stretches of time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"COLD TURKEY"
Ian Ballantine-Gray
United Kingdom
Dear All,
This note is intended for all potential users of the ENART suite of therapies but focusing on our experience of the personal devices range. Up until 8 months ago we had neither heard of nor used the Scenar devices. Our only experience of any type of electro-therapy was the use of a T.E.N.s machine to mask the chronic pain of a pair of prolapsed disc in my lumber region (discs No. 3&4) and this had waned in it's effectiveness as my body slowly adapted to the fixed wave pulses produced by such devices (it worked well over 18months and the rapidly degraded in effective pain relief). In essence we were left with chemical pain controls (mainly opiate based) to control the all encompassing pain.
My partner first put me in contact with the Scenar devices after she had had the opportunity to have a knee injury healed by one. The cost of therapy was restrictive but, with help from the people at Invet, we found that buying a small, personal device made much sounder economics (and without bi-weekly trips to the therapist made our personal lives less hectic). We decided on a 'personal' device, remember, we knew nothing of this technology or its application a few weeks before so what we really needed was just a 'point and go' device with which we could self treat or treat each other.
The wealth of information provided Invet on both the devices operation and the various methodologies of application gave us the full confidence to start our treatments immediately. Little did we know or expect the extent of positive changes that we (and that means all the family) were to experience after an inordinately short period of exposure to the device.
I found that within 3 days of having repeated treatments on my spasmed lower back that the constant attendant pain had diminished. I also found that I was withdrawing from my pain killers. I suffered all the symptoms of Opiate withdrawal whilst still taking my usual doses of pain control.
Understand me now because this really threw me at the time, the pain killers I was on were of the opiate suite of drugs. These molecules mimic the shape of the natural Endorphin molecule that we all produce.
One of the Endorphins main functions within the body is to help lessen the experience of pain. The receptor sites that receive the Endorphins have an uniquely shaped surface that fits the shape of the Endorphin molecule like a glove and it is that perfect fit which then "opens the channel" to the brain so it can alter our perceptions of our external inputs (pain in this case). The opiate suite of drugs (including Morphine and Heroin) manage to fool the receptor sites into thinking it's an Endorphin that's nestled into it's surface and fire off the 'pain control system' in an ad hoc kind of way.
The results are close to the 'real thing' but ask anyone who knows about treating chronic pain with these impostors and they will tell you that there are always accompanying debilitating effects which, at times, can be so severe as to negate the value of the drug. You take the drug to lessen the pain so you can be more active but the drug so 'drugs' you that you can't do anything because of these stupefying effects (no way to live a life).
What Scenar had promoted within me was an astounding chain of events. It had drawn my 'minds eye' to the affected region, my minds eye then recognised the scope of the problems and started to effect repairs. A part of these repairs was the production and deployment of Endorphins.
By the time my daily doses of pain control was ingested and in my blood stream my receptor sites had become swamped by the ready supply of Endorphins and so there was effectively 'no room at the Inn' for the man made copies which were then passed out of my body. I have spent months contemplating what happened during that first week this is the only way I can explain having my 'cold turkey' experience whilst still taking my normal doses of Opiate pain control.
Suffice to say I ceased taking my pain control and now only rarely resort to them and only as a short term 'fix', Scenar now does the real work and I feel sure in the fullness of time it will enable my body to effect the best, fullest repair it is able to perform for my lower back injury... amongst the many other repairs/rebalancing I will be requiring our Scenar to do for us. This is only a small part of what Scenar has done for me thus far.
The rest of my family have also undergone miraculous changes whilst using Scenar. Some of these are medically documented, like my partners recent ascendancy to 20/20 vision. She had been affected by measles at an early age and this had scared the eyes muscles, after 30 yrs of wearing glasses she no longer needs them. She has also grown in stature and is no longer the shortest sister (medical records show a 1" increase!).
Our son, Luke, suffers from a genetic condition known as Trisomi 10p+ and since commencing Scenar therapy on him he is a much more engaging, focused and content young boy (his special school records will adequately illustrate his gains) We feel he is on the edge of major changes in his development and that Scenar has enabled his body to muster the resources necessary for this developmental 'spurt'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ive been doing google searchs to try and get as much info as possible, ive just copyed the pages with info on it, but dont know, im still trying to find out, it does sound good though was hoping there might be someone with more info???
POLITICAL EDITOR (ebarnes@scotlandonsunday.com)
HEALTH chiefs are blocking a revolutionary treatment for heroin addicts because of their "obsession" with the replacement drug methadone, experts claimed last night.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that officials are refusing to offer the treatment, known as neuro-electric therapy (NET) to Scotland's 20,000 addicts, claiming they need more proof that it works.
But organisers of an unprecedented trial of NET which took place last week, funded by artist and former addict Peter Howson, have now claimed their real reason is to save face over methadone.
They say methadone is ruining the lives of thousands of addicts across Scotland, condemning them to modern-day "slavery".
The row has broken out in the wake of the trial, held at a secret location in Scotland, which appears to have successfully weaned two hardened Scots addicts off heroin and methadone within the space of a week.
The men claim their lives had been ruined by having been put on the highly addictive methadone, and that only through NET had they managed to come off drugs.
NET works by sending electric pulses into the brain which help to release endorphins - the body's natural pain killers. Backers say it reduces the intense pain caused by withdrawal by as much as 80%.
Doubts over methadone re-emerged late last year after a new study showed that only 3% of heroin addicts had managed to kick their habits after being prescribed the replacement.
The concerns prompted First Minister Jack McConnell to ask health officials at the Chief Scientist Office to study NET as an alternative to methadone.
But any hope the treatment might be used has now disappeared. Scotland on Sunday has obtained details of a series of meetings held last year at which, according to NET backers, officials sought to obstruct their proposals.
First, the CSO declared that "insufficient information" was available to enable it to take it on. At a subsequent meeting in November, it then decided that NET should be trialled on nicotine - an exercise which backers say will be a waste of time because it will prove nothing about heroin. A large-scale trial is required before the NHS will adopt a new treatment, but the NET backers say the bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the CSO have left them with no hope of continuing.
Lorne Patterson - whose mother Dr Meg Patterson invented the treatment - said: "They are not a proactive organisation. If a research proposal is put to them then they consider it, but they are not going to go out of their way to find evidence."
Patterson added: "There is huge difficulty in getting them to accept that the responsibility is theirs to get this to start."
John Mullen, director of the Third Step charity, which organised the NET trial last week, said: "The people who talk it down are the very ones who promoted methadone. Methadone has been a complete disaster but those people behind it are not going to let their reputations be tarnished."
The two addicts who successfully completed the NET trial last week said that the therapy had helped them through the cold turkey phase.
One of the men, Alan Lindsay from Glasgow, said: "It has been tough but this is about 80% better [than cold turkey]. You don't get the cravings as bad as you do when you're not on the machine. Then you just can't control it. You are rattling - you would go through a brick wall to get a hit."
The other addict, Glenn Keys from Motherwell, who has been on drugs for a decade, added: "This week has got me over the withdrawals which I could never had done before. The therapy stops the worst withdrawals. I wouldn't be able to do anything if I hadn't had this box on."
Mullen added: "If we could keep this up, I believe that in six months' time, I could bring 100 former addicts to Edinburgh and show the MSPs: here are 100 people who have been brought off heroin."
A source close to the First Minister admitted that the health chiefs had the final say over the matter. "Part of the problem is that for this to be approved for widescale use, you have to go through trials in order for doctors to accept it. The First Minister has given it his political support, but we need more to get it used more widely," the source said.
But a spokesman for the Scottish Executive denied that the CSO was blocking the treatment: "We are not slowing down the evaluation process. Advice from experts was that small-scale preparatory studies designed to test the basic method might be the best starting point, possibly initially based on nicotine."
However, backers said they would not be giving up the fight.
Maxie Richards, a longstanding campaigner against drug misuse in Glasgow, said: "When you are on methadone, you can't work; you can't drive; it is a minor sedative so you can't work with machinery. You can't get away because you have to go to the chemist every day. I thought William Wilberforce got rid of slavery 200 years ago, but we have a whole new generation of slaves here in our midst."
On NET, she added: "Everything is being stalled. They [the CSO] are not prepared to act because the general public don't know the whole story. They are stalling. If they wanted a big trial they could."
'I believe it works because I have seen it work'
HE WAS sitting on the front steps, concentrating hard on his roll-up and not on the electrodes positioned behind his ears.
Ronald McLelland had had his last fix of heroin earlier that day and was feeling understandably nervous about his new role as medical guinea-pig in the trial of NET.
"I've been using eight years - three bags a day - and I have done everything an addict does to feed my habit," he said. "I have stolen off my parents and friends. I have held a knife to other addicts' throats to get their heroin. I have held knives to the throats of people in the street to get money to buy drugs. I have been to jail. I lost my brother to an overdose. So there is nothing I don't know about this life."
The 26-year-old from Ayrshire gestured to the battery pouch attached to his waist and the wires leading up to his ears.
"That's why I think this is my last chance of getting clean. I have a three-year-old daughter I haven't seen since she was eight months and I want to get my life back."
McLelland was one of the six hard-core addicts who last week volunteered to take part in the trial of NET at a Lanarkshire farmhouse.
They had been fitted with the equipment by Lorne Patterson, whose mother Meg developed the technique in the 1970s and is alleged to have treated rock star Eric Clapton among other well-known musicians of the era.
In the absence of large-scale medical trials, the technique has been kept alive by her family in isolated clinics around the world. Meg Patterson eventually settled in Lanarkshire before she died and a friend has now loaned his farmhouse for the trial.
The six male addicts who arrived last week - six women will be treated later this month - were individually fitted with the electrodes, held in place behind their ears with tape.
Although four of them, including McLelland, left the centre after a few days, the treatment is gradually gaining support. The theory is that a small charge of electric current from the battery pack will restore the balance of chemicals in the brain that have been severely disrupted by addiction.
The NET device is switched on constantly and all wearers feel is a slight tingling sensation. When drug cravings appear, the current is turned up and the sensation should subside. Supporters of the technique claim cravings are reduced by up to 80% over a period of six to 10 days as long as the device is worn and used throughout that period.
A Scottish doctor associated with the trial said: "I believe it works because I have seen it work. Putting people on methadone just gives them two addictions. But it isn't a cure.
"This works by reducing the cravings. It means that when an addict wakes up in the morning his or her first thought is not 'where do I get my fix?' It makes them much more amenable to counselling and finally breaking the vicious circle for good."
The addicts stay in the farmhouse, in a secluded location overlooking beautiful Lanarkshire countryside, for up to 10 days.
Their withdrawal from drugs is overseen by a medical doctor. All enter with the knowledge that however bad their cravings get, no drugs will be available. Part of the deal, if they stay the course, is that they will either live with their families in the immediate aftermath or enter a rehabilitation centre to ensure they stay off drugs.
John Mullen, one of the organisers. said: "There is no point in them going through this if we are just going to pitch them out alone on to the streets again. We want this to work and keep on working."
HEALTH chiefs are blocking a revolutionary treatment for heroin addicts because of their "obsession" with the replacement drug methadone, experts claimed last night.
Scotland on Sunday can reveal that officials are refusing to offer the treatment, known as neuro-electric therapy (NET) to Scotland's 20,000 addicts, claiming they need more proof that it works.
But organisers of an unprecedented trial of NET which took place last week, funded by artist and former addict Peter Howson, have now claimed their real reason is to save face over methadone.
They say methadone is ruining the lives of thousands of addicts across Scotland, condemning them to modern-day "slavery".
The row has broken out in the wake of the trial, held at a secret location in Scotland, which appears to have successfully weaned two hardened Scots addicts off heroin and methadone within the space of a week.
The men claim their lives had been ruined by having been put on the highly addictive methadone, and that only through NET had they managed to come off drugs.
NET works by sending electric pulses into the brain which help to release endorphins - the body's natural pain killers. Backers say it reduces the intense pain caused by withdrawal by as much as 80%.
Doubts over methadone re-emerged late last year after a new study showed that only 3% of heroin addicts had managed to kick their habits after being prescribed the replacement.
The concerns prompted First Minister Jack McConnell to ask health officials at the Chief Scientist Office to study NET as an alternative to methadone.
But any hope the treatment might be used has now disappeared. Scotland on Sunday has obtained details of a series of meetings held last year at which, according to NET backers, officials sought to obstruct their proposals.
First, the CSO declared that "insufficient information" was available to enable it to take it on. At a subsequent meeting in November, it then decided that NET should be trialled on nicotine - an exercise which backers say will be a waste of time because it will prove nothing about heroin. A large-scale trial is required before the NHS will adopt a new treatment, but the NET backers say the bureaucratic hurdles imposed by the CSO have left them with no hope of continuing.
Lorne Patterson - whose mother Dr Meg Patterson invented the treatment - said: "They are not a proactive organisation. If a research proposal is put to them then they consider it, but they are not going to go out of their way to find evidence."
Patterson added: "There is huge difficulty in getting them to accept that the responsibility is theirs to get this to start."
John Mullen, director of the Third Step charity, which organised the NET trial last week, said: "The people who talk it down are the very ones who promoted methadone. Methadone has been a complete disaster but those people behind it are not going to let their reputations be tarnished."
The two addicts who successfully completed the NET trial last week said that the therapy had helped them through the cold turkey phase.
One of the men, Alan Lindsay from Glasgow, said: "It has been tough but this is about 80% better [than cold turkey]. You don't get the cravings as bad as you do when you're not on the machine. Then you just can't control it. You are rattling - you would go through a brick wall to get a hit."
The other addict, Glenn Keys from Motherwell, who has been on drugs for a decade, added: "This week has got me over the withdrawals which I could never had done before. The therapy stops the worst withdrawals. I wouldn't be able to do anything if I hadn't had this box on."
Mullen added: "If we could keep this up, I believe that in six months' time, I could bring 100 former addicts to Edinburgh and show the MSPs: here are 100 people who have been brought off heroin."
A source close to the First Minister admitted that the health chiefs had the final say over the matter. "Part of the problem is that for this to be approved for widescale use, you have to go through trials in order for doctors to accept it. The First Minister has given it his political support, but we need more to get it used more widely," the source said.
But a spokesman for the Scottish Executive denied that the CSO was blocking the treatment: "We are not slowing down the evaluation process. Advice from experts was that small-scale preparatory studies designed to test the basic method might be the best starting point, possibly initially based on nicotine."
However, backers said they would not be giving up the fight.
Maxie Richards, a longstanding campaigner against drug misuse in Glasgow, said: "When you are on methadone, you can't work; you can't drive; it is a minor sedative so you can't work with machinery. You can't get away because you have to go to the chemist every day. I thought William Wilberforce got rid of slavery 200 years ago, but we have a whole new generation of slaves here in our midst."
On NET, she added: "Everything is being stalled. They [the CSO] are not prepared to act because the general public don't know the whole story. They are stalling. If they wanted a big trial they could."
'I believe it works because I have seen it work'
HE WAS sitting on the front steps, concentrating hard on his roll-up and not on the electrodes positioned behind his ears.
Ronald McLelland had had his last fix of heroin earlier that day and was feeling understandably nervous about his new role as medical guinea-pig in the trial of NET.
"I've been using eight years - three bags a day - and I have done everything an addict does to feed my habit," he said. "I have stolen off my parents and friends. I have held a knife to other addicts' throats to get their heroin. I have held knives to the throats of people in the street to get money to buy drugs. I have been to jail. I lost my brother to an overdose. So there is nothing I don't know about this life."
The 26-year-old from Ayrshire gestured to the battery pouch attached to his waist and the wires leading up to his ears.
"That's why I think this is my last chance of getting clean. I have a three-year-old daughter I haven't seen since she was eight months and I want to get my life back."
McLelland was one of the six hard-core addicts who last week volunteered to take part in the trial of NET at a Lanarkshire farmhouse.
They had been fitted with the equipment by Lorne Patterson, whose mother Meg developed the technique in the 1970s and is alleged to have treated rock star Eric Clapton among other well-known musicians of the era.
In the absence of large-scale medical trials, the technique has been kept alive by her family in isolated clinics around the world. Meg Patterson eventually settled in Lanarkshire before she died and a friend has now loaned his farmhouse for the trial.
The six male addicts who arrived last week - six women will be treated later this month - were individually fitted with the electrodes, held in place behind their ears with tape.
Although four of them, including McLelland, left the centre after a few days, the treatment is gradually gaining support. The theory is that a small charge of electric current from the battery pack will restore the balance of chemicals in the brain that have been severely disrupted by addiction.
The NET device is switched on constantly and all wearers feel is a slight tingling sensation. When drug cravings appear, the current is turned up and the sensation should subside. Supporters of the technique claim cravings are reduced by up to 80% over a period of six to 10 days as long as the device is worn and used throughout that period.
A Scottish doctor associated with the trial said: "I believe it works because I have seen it work. Putting people on methadone just gives them two addictions. But it isn't a cure.
"This works by reducing the cravings. It means that when an addict wakes up in the morning his or her first thought is not 'where do I get my fix?' It makes them much more amenable to counselling and finally breaking the vicious circle for good."
The addicts stay in the farmhouse, in a secluded location overlooking beautiful Lanarkshire countryside, for up to 10 days.
Their withdrawal from drugs is overseen by a medical doctor. All enter with the knowledge that however bad their cravings get, no drugs will be available. Part of the deal, if they stay the course, is that they will either live with their families in the immediate aftermath or enter a rehabilitation centre to ensure they stay off drugs.
John Mullen, one of the organisers. said: "There is no point in them going through this if we are just going to pitch them out alone on to the streets again. We want this to work and keep on working."
im sorry for being a pain with the page copying but just sharing what ive found out myself and if it helps anybody else thats a result.ive just ordered a ten machine myself for b/f so im really hoping it works. ill let u know......fingers crossed.
Not a pain at all Elle..........that's some good stuff.......I so hope it works.
Let us know, O.K.???????
Be advised that shocking the friends for a laugh is not on the list......LOL.....Tin all having a laugh with the shock...........weird thing is I actually have one of them things around somewhere.........DANG.......if I knew in withdrawl what I know now........I'da tried it!!!!!!!! Thanks, Elle.
Another "ear" pressure point.......headaches.........put a clothespin on your ear.
YES I walked around with a clothespin on my ear.......only thing it did was it hurt my ear so bad I forgot about the headache.........bravo!!!!!!!!!!!
Let us know, O.K.???????
Be advised that shocking the friends for a laugh is not on the list......LOL.....Tin all having a laugh with the shock...........weird thing is I actually have one of them things around somewhere.........DANG.......if I knew in withdrawl what I know now........I'da tried it!!!!!!!! Thanks, Elle.
Another "ear" pressure point.......headaches.........put a clothespin on your ear.
YES I walked around with a clothespin on my ear.......only thing it did was it hurt my ear so bad I forgot about the headache.........bravo!!!!!!!!!!!
