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ACUPUNCTURE HAILED AS COKE CURE

Going under the acupuncturist’s needle may be one of the best ways to beat a tough cocaine addiction, researchers announced yesterday.

In a Yale University study of people who were addicted, more than half of those treated with acupuncture tested free of cocaine at the end of treatment – more than double the rate of a control group.

“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,” Yale psychiatrist and principal investigator Arthur Margolin said.

“Additional benefits of acupuncture include its low cost, and that it seems to have few, if any, adverse side effects,” he said, noting that this was the first study of its kind.

During the study, 82 users addicted to both cocaine and heroin were divided into three groups.

All received counseling and methadone for their heroin addictions.

Among those who had needles inserted in their ears in places thought to help treat addiction, 55 percent tested free of cocaine at the end of the eight-week treatment.

Those in the second control group had needles inserted in ear points that were not thought to have a treatment effect – and less than one-quarter (24 percent) of the participants stopped using cocaine.

Of the participants in the third group, which viewed nature scenes and other relaxing images, only 9 percent stopped using the drug.

Those in the effective-acupuncture group also had longer periods of being drug-free.

A 1997 report by the National Institutes of Health said acupuncture – used in China for thousands of years – can work to ease the nausea caused by chemotherapy and morning sickness, and as an anesthesia.