Exercise may help meth users recover from addiction: Study

BUFFALO, N.Y., Oct. 13 (UPI) -- People addicted to methamphetamine may be able to recover with exercise, researchers from the University at Buffalo suggest in a new study.

By pairing exercise with a regimen of methamphetamine, scientists believe addicts will be able to restore their circadian rhythm, the 24-hour cycle that regulates the life of all organisms. According to the study, the approach introduces a beneficial reward system, which can influence patients to re-adapt to the cycle that has been disrupted through drug abuse.

"Our experiments show that it might be possible to use methamphetamine to treat meth addiction itself, by associating drug usage with a stimuli that's not harmful: exercise," study co-first author Oliver Rawashdeh explained in a press release.

To test their hypothesis, researchers analyzed mice with removed suprachiasmatic nuclei, a region within the brain's hypothalamus that acts as a "master clock." By providing access to running wheels and methamphetamine, the animals demonstrated reinstated circadian rhythmicity. Mice continued to exhibit the same behavior after methamphetamine was removed. The findings were published in The FASEB Journal.

"Our idea was that if you pair a reward, in this case access to the running wheel, along with methamphetamine in 24-hour intervals over a period of time, the animal's fragmented sleep/wake cycles would acclimatize to the 24-hour cycles, a process we call entrainment and consolidation," Rawashdeh added.

Because many aspects of circadian rhythm are common to all mammals, the research team is confident human patients will demonstrate similar behavior, and their approach could be used to improve drug abuse rehabilitation techniques. Their next step will be to investigate how pairing exercise and methamphetamine can activate a new circadian clock in the brain.