Acupuncture is promising treatment for cocaine addiction, Yale resear...( In the first such finding from a cont...),Health

In the first such finding from a controlled study, Yale researchers have successfully used acupuncture to treat cocaine addiction, a disorder for which there are few effective treatments.

Published in the August 14 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, study results showed that participants who received auricular acupuncture -- needles inserted into specific parts of the outer ear -- were more likely to have cocaine-negative urine screens over the course of the study compared to those in control groups.

"Our study supports the use of acupuncture for cocaine addiction and shows that alternative therapies can be combined with the arsenal of Western treatments for fighting addiction," said Arthur Margolin, the study's principal investigator and research scientist in psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. "This promising finding suggests that further research on acupuncture in this application is warranted."

Results showed that 54.8 percent of participants tested free of cocaine during the last week of treatment, compared to 23.5 and 9.1 percent in the two control groups. Those who completed acupuncture treatment also had longer periods of sustained abstinence compared to participants in the control groups.

"Additional benefits of acupuncture include its low cost, and that it seems to have few, if any, adverse side effects," Margolin said.

The study included 82 participants who were addicted to both heroin and cocaine. They received methadone for their heroin addiction, but they continued to use cocaine. Participants were assigned to one of three groups: auricular acupuncture, "control" acupuncture -- needles inserted into four ear points that aren't thought to have a treatment effect -- or a relaxation group, in which patients viewed videotapes depicting relaxing images such as nature scenes.

Participants had treatment five times a week for eight weeks. Urine samples were taken three times a week to assess cocaine use. In addi
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Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University
12-Aug-2000