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Sweating for Sobriety: Exploring the Relationship Between Exercise Engagement and Substance Use Disorders
Baldur Jón Gústafsson1, Cheneal Puljević2, Emma L Davies3
1School of Law, Department of Criminology and Sociology, Middlesex University, London, UK.
Regular exercise may reduce the severity of dependence on several illicit drugs, including cannabis, cocaine, and methamphetamine. This finding highlights exercise as a potential complementary strategy for substance use disorder treatment.
Area of Science:
- Addiction research
- Behavioral science
- Public health
Background:
- Substance use disorders have high relapse rates despite existing interventions.
- There is a need for alternative strategies to reduce drug dependence severity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the association between exercise frequency and illicit substance use.
- To investigate the relationship between exercise and the severity of dependence on various drugs.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Global Drug Survey 2018 (N=57,110).
- Employed binomial regressions to analyze exercise frequency and Substance Dependence Scale (SDS) scores for 9 drugs.
Main Results:
- Greater exercise frequency correlated with reduced dependence severity for cannabis, MDMA, cocaine, amphetamine powder, and methamphetamine.
- Statistically significant associations were found for multiple substances (p < .05).
Conclusions:
- Exercise frequency shows a potential link to reduced substance dependence severity.
- Further research is warranted to explore the bidirectional relationship between exercise and substance use.
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