This simple ear-acupuncture treatment has radical roots in Black and Puerto Rican community health activism. 

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One of the program's most important leaders was Dr. Mutulu Shakur - not "Matula" - a Black liberation activist, healer, and informal affiliate of the Black Panther Party. Shakur and other members of the Lincoln team explored acupuncture as an alternative to relying entirely on methadone. They learned acupuncture, treated community members, and helped develop the approach that eventually became the standardized five-point ear protocol used throughout the world today. Dr. Shakur and Walter Bosque del Rio later received doctorates in acupuncture from the Montreal Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine in 1976. 

The treatment that emerged from Lincoln was created to be simple, accessible, nonverbal, inexpensive, and available to many people at once. It did not require someone to explain, relive, or even name everything that had happened to them before receiving care. In 1985, Dr. Michael Smith and others founded the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association - NADA - and formally organized the five-point protocol, helping it spread into behavioral-health programs, prisons, hospitals, community centers, disaster-relief settings, and treatment programs around the world. 

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More Than an “Addiction Treatment” 

Over the years, we have seen that calling this only an “addiction treatment” diminishes the scope of what it does. A better way to understand it is as a processing treatment. 

The treatment supports the body's natural ability to regulate itself. People commonly experience:

• Greater calm and emotional steadiness 

• Improved sleep and rest 

• Reduced agitation, anxiety, and mental overactivity 

• Support for cravings and withdrawal symptoms 

• Less muscular tension and physical discomfort 

• Improved concentration and mental clarity 

• Support for appetite, digestion, and other stress-sensitive body systems 

• A greater ability to remain present while processing difficult experiences 

The protocol is now used following natural disasters and community violence, and as supportive care for PTSD, traumatic stress, grief, substance-use recovery, anxiety, and other conditions involving dysregulation. NADA describes increased calmness, improved sleep, reduced agitation, and relief from stress and emotional trauma among its commonly observed benefits. Research has also examined ear acupuncture for trauma-related symptoms following disasters, although it should be understood as supportive care rather than a replacement for necessary medical or psychological treatment.