Physical exercise to improve drug-related outcomes

Physical exercise (and/or activity) was found in a systematic review (Thompson et al., 2020, 32 studies) to have no conclusive effects in:

• improving substance use outcomes
• reducing the risk of progression to alcohol and other drug use
• supporting individuals to reduce alcohol and other drug use for harm reduction
• promote abstinence and relapse prevention during and after treatment of alcohol and other drug use

A more specific but limited systematic review (Jake-Schoffman et al., 2020, 3 studies) analysed the effects of aerobic exercise interventions as adjunctive treatment for patients in opioid substitution treatment and also found no significant effects on substance use outcomes.