Cocaine Alternative Treatment Study (CATS), 1996-1999
Investigators: Arthur Margolin, Herbert D. Kleber, S. Kelly Avants, Janet Konefal, Frank Gawin, Elena Stark, James Sorensen, Eleanor Midkiff, Elizabeth Wells, T. Ron Jackson, Milton Bullock, Patricia D. Culliton, Sharon Boles, & Roger Vaughan

The Cocaine Alternative Treatment Study (CATS), was conducted between 1996 and 1999 at six community-based clinics (3 hospital-affiliated clinics, 3 methadone maintenance programs) in the U.S. The study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of auricular acupuncture as a treatment for cocaine addiction. The study was a randomized, controlled, single-blind clinical trial that lasted 8 weeks. 620 cocaine-dependent adult patients were randomly assigned to receive auricular acupuncture, a needle-insertion control condition, or a relaxation control condition. Treatments were offered 5 times a week for 8 weeks. Drug counseling sessions were offered alongside treatment sessions for patients in each treatment group. Patients were assessed at a screening interview, an intake interview, at each of the 40 treatment sessions offered, at a post-treatment assessment, and at 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. The primary outcome measure is cocaine use (testing positive for cocaine use in urine screens), assessed during the 8 week treatment phase and at the 3-month and 6-month follow-ups. The dataset contains 7,047 variables collected from 620 patients.