Acupuncture in the treatment of cocaine addiction: how does it work?

Cocaine is a frequently abused and highly addictive drug that damages brain health and imposes substantial social and economic costs. Acupuncture has been used in the treatment of cocaine addiction and has been shown to improve abnormal mental and motor states. This article mainly focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms involving the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral nervous system (PNS) that underlie the effects of acupuncture in the treatment of cocaine addiction. The central dopamine system is a key player in acupuncture treatment of cocaine addiction; the ventral tegmental area (VTA)-nucleus accumbens (NAc) signaling pathway, which has a modulatory influence on behavior and psychology after chronic use of cocaine, is a significant target of acupuncture action. Moreover, acupuncture alleviates cocaine-induced seizures or acute psychomotor responses through the paraventricular thalamus and the lateral habenula (LHb)-rostromedial tegmental (RMTg) nucleus circuits. The data suggest that acupuncture can impact various cocaine-induced issues via stimulation of diverse brain areas; nevertheless, the interconnection of these brain regions and the PNS mechanisms involved remain unknown. In this review, we also discuss the effects of specific acupuncture protocols on cocaine addiction and note that variations in needling modalities, current intensities and traditional acupuncture point locations have led to different experimental results. Therefore, standardized acupuncture protocols (with respect to stimulation methods, point locations and number of sessions) may become particularly important in future studies.