The Effect of an Acute Exercise Intervention on Alcohol Craving and Alcohol Seeking Behaviours Among Heavy Social Drinkers: Preliminary Findings

Alcohol Craving predicts alcohol seeking behaviours and these constructs can cause someone with problematic alcohol use to develop an alcohol use disorder. Current treatments are not effective or easily accessible to everyone, therefore exercise is a promising treatment modality. The present study compared 20-minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise and 20-minutes of colouring on subjective measures related to alcohol craving as well as objectively assessed alcohol seeking behaviours and their relationship to craving following an alcohol induction. Heavy, social drinkers (N=33) were randomized to one of the experimental conditions. Findings suggest that when individuals responded to the alcohol induction, exercise may reduce craving more than colouring, but this finding is dependent on the craving measure used. There also is some evidence that exercise leads to less alcohol seeking behavior. Furthermore, there appears to be a positive relationship between reductions in craving and reductions in alcohol seeking behaviours. These findings are discussed.