Exercise to combat addictions with Dr. Ana Abrantes

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ana Abrantes, who is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University. Her research is focused on the development and testing of novel interventions for decreasing relapse risk among individuals with alcohol and other drug abuse problems. She also conducts research in the area of physical activity promotion for individuals with substance abuse and mental health disorders. We speak with her about how exercise can help in the management of different types of addictions. We start by trying to understand addictions and how we diagnose them clinically. We discuss the evidence that supports the use of exercise as an intervention to manage different addictions. We talk about what types of addictions could be more susceptible to benefit from exercise, the potential mechanisms underlying the positive effect, and whether some types of exercise could be more effective than others. You can follow Dr. Ana Abrantes on twitter at @ana_m_abrantes