2023-05-02 12:00:20
Ten thousand steps and more. It is well known that the intensive practice of a sport can lead to real addiction, called bigorexia. However, physical activity and addiction do not only maintain dangerous links. On the contrary, physical activity is an increasingly recognized tool in the management of addiction to psychoactive substances, as evidenced by the results of a review of the literature, published on April 26 in Plos One by the team of Florence Piché – currently a doctoral student in physical activity sciences at the University of Montreal.
Alcohol, cannabis, hallucinogens, opioids, hypnotics, anxiolytics, stimulants… The objective was to analyze studies evaluating a physical activity intervention in the treatment of addiction to various psychoactive products. The authors of the article specify it from the outset, they have left aside the studies focusing on smoking cessation. In this field, where the work is by far the most numerous, it has been shown in particular that physical activity allows better control of withdrawal and craving (almost irrepressible urge to smoke) and can limit the weight gain associated with smoking cessation. In practice, many specialists consider it as a potential aid for smoking cessation.
The authors of an issue of the scientific literature review Cochranedated 2019, remain circumspect, however: “There is no evidence that adding exercise to smoking cessation support improves abstinence compared to support alone, but there are insufficient data to assess whether there is a benefit modest “, they conclude.
Excluding this particular field of smoking cessation, the Quebec researchers retained 43 articles, totaling 3,135 participants. In more than 80% of cases, these were randomized trials, with an average of three weekly sessions of approximately fifty minutes with moderate intensity, for thirteen weeks. Jogging, possibly combined with other disciplines (cycling, resistance exercises, etc.), was the activity most often assessed.
“Priorization of care”
A reduction or cessation of substance consumption after the physical activity program was observed in 75% of the studies where these parameters were evaluated, underline Florence Piché and her co-authors. Favorable effects are also attested to on quality of life, sleep and physical condition, with in particular an improvement in aerobic capacity in 71% of the studies where it was measured. On the psychological level, a decrease in depressive and anxious symptoms is also reported.
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