Exercise as an adjunct intervention to improve quality of life and health outcomes in people with substance use disorder.

Abstract

Exercise is known to improve treatment outcomes in substance use disorder (SUD), however the direct impact on individual domains of health is not well elucidated. This thesis investigates the impact of exercise on quality of life and affective outcomes in people with substance use disorder. Additionally, it provides information regarding the exercise capacity at various stages of treatment, and insight into the beliefs and preferences regarding exercise of people receiving treatment for SUD. We hypothesised that exercise will be beneficial to psychological outcomes including mood and quality of life (QOL) following both an acute session and a longer-term

intervention. Additionally, this thesis hypothesises that fitness outcomes such as muscular endurance and cardiorespiratory fitness of people with substance use disorder will be significantly lower than that of the general population. This thesis is made up of seven chapters: a systematic review of existing research on affective outcomes and quality of life; two protocol papers; four field studies in a range of treatment settings including withdrawal management, residential rehabilitation, outpatient drug and alcohol services and inpatient mental health and a final chapter exploring the overall conclusions and future implications of this research.