The relationship between physical exercise, depressed mood, and strength of craving in drug misuse. Utilizing a group exercise intervention.

This study employed a mixed methods design to explore whether physical exercise influenced depressed mood and craving in people, who are undergoing therapy for drug misuse. Ninety participants who attended therapeutic communities, took part in this study, and were separated into control and intervention groups. Participants in the intervention group were involved in group exercise on a weekly basis for a period of three months. All participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory and the Obsessive-Compulsive Drug Use Scale three times (pre, post, post 2). In addition, 26 participants were interviewed about their experiences with exercise. The quantitative data was analysed using Pearson Correlations, MANOVA, and T-TESTS. The qualitative data was assessed using thematic analysis. The present study is characterized by conflicting results between quantitative and qualitative methodology. The main reasons for this discrepancy are the differences before the start of the study between the two groups. On one hand, quantitative results indicated that there were no differences between the two groups after the intervention of physical exercise on depressed mood and craving. They also indicated that the two groups seemed to differ prior the intervention of physical exercise. On the other hand, qualitative results indicated that physical exercise helped participants in the intervention group to improve their depressed mood, reduce their drug cravings, and adapt better in the therapeutic community. Additionally, physical exercise helped participants in the intervention group enhance other psychological elements such as group cohesion, better body image perceptions, and improved their confidence. Finally, intervention group participants’ subjective experiences of the usefulness of physical exercise, reveal a strong argument that physical exercise can be used as a therapeutic tool in drug addiction treatment. A primary discovery of the present study that was found by both quantitative and qualitative results, is the relationship between depressed mood, and craving, regardless of the intervention of physical exercise. This is a major finding as it will allow future research to better explore the different elements around the relationship between depressed mood and craving and can contribute in the generation of future hypotheses