A new study has discovered that aerobic exercise can help treat alcohol dependence.
The study was published in the Journal of Substance Abuse and Treatment and found that people in the early stages of recovery who started a regular aerobic exercise routine brought down their consumption of alcohol, according to The Brown Daily Herald.
Richard Brown, professor of psychiatry and human behavior, led the research.
The researchers worked with 48 participants for 12 weeks, Liberty Voice reported. A total of 25 of the participants performed group aerobic exercises every week, while the rest received a "brief advice to exercise intervention", in which researchers used motivation, discussion or negotiation to get the subjects to exercise instead of drinking.
The team used standard interviews and questionnaires to judge each participant's drinking habits, and were looking for changes in consumption of alcohol. They found that the people in the exercise group had far less drinks than people in the brief-advice group.
Brown said he was conducted the research due to a lack of science that studies on exercise being able to treat alcoholism, Liberty Voice reported.
"Any substance abuse counselor or mental health provider working with alcohol-dependent patients in early recovery shoulder consider recommending that their patients engage in aerobic exercise," Ana Abrantes, co-author of the study and associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior, said in an email, The Brown Daily Herald reported.
The participants were happy about the exercise's effects on their mental health. Brown said that many of them said the exercise routine "gave structure to their lives that they hadn't had before." He added that the routine gave them a good alternative to drinking.
Brown said that the research represents the potential to future studies such as clinical trials and researching the "mechanisms underlying the observed effects," The Brown Daily Herald reported.
"I think in general, the idea of getting people to engage in some kind of physical activity regimen during their recovery period is an area that warrants future study," he said. "It is likely to be very promising."
