Physical exercise interventions in the natural environment in people with substance use disorders: systematic review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47197/retos.v71.117219Keywords:
adjuvant therapy, natural environment, physical exercise, substance use disorderAbstract
Introduction: physical exercise as well as exposure to the outdoors are proven beneficial tools in the treatment processes of people with substance use disorders (SUD) (Shirazi et al., 2025; Wicks et al., 2022).
Objective: to collect results, study trends and conclusions from studies carried out in the field of physical exercise in the natural environment in people with SCT.
Methodology: a systematic review was carried out on the Web of Science, PubMed and Scopus databases. Five studies were included and analyzed considering general and specific characteristics and methodological quality.
Results: the selected studies indicate that physical exercise in the natural environment is an effective tool for the improvement of psychological aspects of people with SCT. It is also observed that the range of activities is scarce, and the methodological quality is low or acceptable in general terms.
Discussion: the few studies found show that physical exercise interventions in the natural environment are a coadjutant tool for people with SCI. On the other hand, methodological limitations have been found in the studies and in the future studies that consider a higher methodological quality, are based on FITT principles and measure biological and physical condition variables should be addressed.
Conclusions: the systematic review found that physical exercise in nature improved anxiety, depression, stress and craving in people with SCT. Positive trends in well-being and abstinence were also observed. It identified the need for future studies with better methodological design, applying exercise principles and measuring biological variables to optimize interventions.
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