Cannabis Use Declines with Aerobic Exercise

Improvement in addiction treatment interventions in needed.  Many substance dependence individuals end up with with a chronic illness with frequent relapse following periods of abstinence.

Aerobic exercise appears to be a candidate for a treatment component in a variety of addictive disorders.  Aerobic exercise may produce a variety of changes in the brain that may influence craving and drug use.

Mechanisms induced by aerobic exercise that might influence drug craving and drug use include:

• Alteration in the brain reward circuit
• Increased release of brain dopamine and changes in dopamine receptor sensitivity
• Decrease in anxiety and depressive symptoms 

Maciej Bukowski and colleagues at Vanderbilt University recently published a trial of cannabis craving and use in a series of subjects.  Regular cannabis user were enrolled in a ten session intervention that included ten 30 minute supervised treadmill periods.  Subjects exercised at 60% of their calculated maximum heart rate. 

All subjects met DSM-IV criteria for cannabis dependence.  Subjects were not involved in any formal substance abuse treatment program and did not express a desire to reduce or discontinue their cannabis use.  Subjects were using an average of 33.5 standard joint equivalents of cannabis at the beginning of the study.  The average daily cannabis use of the subjects is displayed in the plot below taken from the manuscript:

The plot demonstrates a significant reduction in daily cannabis use during the active aerobic exercise period. Daily joint use dropped from approximately six joints per day to an average of about two to three joints per day during the exercise period.  Following completion of the exercise phase, daily joint use climbed up again approaching the run-period levels.

This study was not done in a treatment-seeking sample.  It is unclear whether a similar effect would be seen in treatment seeking samples.  The study did not include a control sample.  Nevertheless, this study should stimulate research in treatment samples.  It suggests that regular aerobic exercise may be a valuable component of treatment for cannabis dependence.  Extended aerobic exercise may be valuable in the longer term reduction of cannabis use in those with cannabis dependence.

Chemical model of tetrahydrocannabinol (the psychoactive substance in cannabis) from the Creative Commons file at Wikipedia authored by Ben Mills.

Cannabis use Creative Commons Attribution License plot from Plos One manuscript authored by Maciej Bukowski and colleagues referenced below.

Buchowski MS, Meade NN, Charboneau E, Park S, Dietrich MS, Cowan RL, & Martin PR (2011). Aerobic exercise training reduces cannabis craving and use in non-treatment seeking cannabis-dependent adults. PloS one, 6 (3) PMID: 21408154