Research Progress on the Intervention Effects and Mechanisms of Various Exercise Modalities in Patients with Drug Addiction

Drug addiction seriously endangers human physical and mental health. Recent studies have shown that exercise therapy, as a non-pharmaceutical intervention, has a significant effect on patients addicted to drugs. This article systematically analyzes the intervention effects of different types of exercise (aerobic exercise, resistance training, and combined exercise). The results show that exercise can effectively suppress drug craving, improve emotional state, enhance physical fitness, and alleviate withdrawal symptoms and the risk of relapse. However, the intervention effects vary with different exercise intensities. At present, the research on the mechanism of exercise intervention is still in the development stage. This article focuses on exploring the regulatory effects of exercise on neurotransmitters (dopamine, glutamic acid, endogenous opioid peptides), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and the immune system, revealing that it improves addiction symptoms through pathways such as dopaminergic reward pathway remodeling, BDNF-mediated neural plasticity repair, and inflammation inhibition. Future research should focus on the design of personalized exercise programs, deepen the empirical study of the dose-effect of exercise intensity, and deeply explore the interaction mechanisms of multiple systems to optimize the application of exercise therapy in the treatment of drug addiction.