Effects of Aerobic Exercise Combined With Attentional Bias Modification in the Care of Male Patients With a Methamphetamine Use Disorder

Abstract Objective It remains unclear which individual or combined strategies are most beneficial for methamphetamine use disorders (MUDs). We compared the effects of aerobic exercise, attentional bias modification, and combined intervention on male patients with MUD. Method One hundred male patients with MUD were randomly assigned to combined intervention, aerobic exercise, attentional bias modification, or control groups (25 patients per group). The 8-week intervention protocol included three 60-minute sessions of aerobic exercises per week. Primary outcomes included high- and low-frequency heart rate variability, executive function, and cardiorespiratory fitness measured by customized software, computerized tests, and the Harvard step test, respectively. Secondary outcomes included psychiatric symptoms, drug craving, training acceptability, and persistence. Results Participant characteristics were matched between groups at baseline. Executive function, heart rate variability, cardiorespiratory fitness, drug craving, and most psychiatric symptoms had significant time–group interactions at posttest ( p < .05, η 2 = .08–.28). Compared with the attentional bias modification and control groups, the combined intervention and aerobic exercise groups improved significantly in executive function, heart rate variability, cardiorespiratory fitness, and most secondary outcomes. In addition, high-frequency heart rate variability and cardiorespiratory fitness in the aerobic exercise group were significantly higher than those in the combined intervention group. Conclusions Combination strategies showed comparable efficacy to aerobic exercise alone in improving executive function, psychiatric symptoms, and drug craving and significantly exceeded other conditions. For heart rate variability and cardiorespiratory fitness, aerobic exercise alone was the most effective. For acceptability and persistence, combination strategies were preferred over single-domain training and health education intervention.