A Review of the Effect of Different Exercise Types on Medication Craving in Patients with Substance Use Disorders-Based on a Dose-Response Relationship Perspective

BACKGROUND: Exercise interventions can significantly reduce medication cravings and improve the physical and mental health of patients with substance use disorders (SUDs), but finding the optimal type and dose of exercise to maximize the benefits of SUDs requires in-depth investigation.
METHODS: A literature search of randomized controlled trials on the effects of exercise interventions on SUDs' medication cravings over the past 20 years (2005-2025) was conducted through electronic databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, and EMBASE.Thirty papers were obtained based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, involving 1717 patients (male=1258, female=459) and processed using network meta-analysis.
CONCLUSION: Aerobic exercise is the best form of exercise to improve medication craving in SUDs, in which the exercise dose showed low dose effectiveness and effect plateau characteristics for SUDs improvement, and the total intervention dose was kept at 180 METs-min/week as optimal, i.e., close to moderate-intensity, three-times-weekly and 60-minute-per-per-exercise aerobic exercise.