Can acupuncture help to beat a cocaine addiction?
Kate Moss certainly hopes so. She was spotted this week with plasters on her earlobes, a sure sign, said some papers, that she had been trying out auricular acupuncture – getting people to stick needles into her ears. Acupuncture is used for everything from relieving muscle pains to boosting fertility. It is an area of complementary medicine where even some doctors can see benefits for some ailments. Sue Cox, director of Smart UK, which uses acupuncture to treat drug addiction and which has programmes in 89 prisons, says that inserting needles into the ear is effective if used in conjunction with education programmes to treat addiction. “It’s very effective in terms of helping with withdrawal symptoms and cravings,” she said. The needles are used in the ear to stimulate nerves there, according to Ms Cox. “The nerves that innervate the ear actively stimulate the limbic system, which is the pleasure circuit of the brain,” she said. “In doing that it relieves an awful lot of the withdrawa
