COCAINE USE AND ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture May Help Cocaine Addicts Break Their Habits, According To A New
Study.

Arthur Margolin of Yale University School of Medicine and colleagues
studied 82 subjects who were addicted to heroin and cocaine. They received
methadone for the heroin addiction but continued to use cocaine.

Five times a week for eight weeks, one-third of the addicts received
acupuncture on parts of their outer ears that studies have suggested might
help alleviate cocaine craving. One-third of the addicts received
acupuncture on other parts of the ear, while the final third watched
relaxation tapes. All the subjects received counseling.

Urine tests showed that 53.8 percent of those in the first acupuncture
group were free of cocaine during the last week of treatment, compared with
23.5 percent of those in the second acupuncture group and 9.1 percent of
those who listened to the tapes.

"Findings from the current study provide support for the use of acupuncture
for the treatment of cocaine addiction," the researchers wrote in today's
issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine. "Further research of
acupuncture in this application . . . appears to be warranted."

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