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Heroin Addiction and Related Clinical Problems: 2022, 24, N6 (pages: 5 - 14)

Impact of opium tincture and exercise in the management of opioid withdrawal: Assessing behavioural and neuroendocrine changes in Opioid Use Disorder patients

Bavisi M., Tirdad R., Ghorbani R., Shafia S., Hajirasouli M., and Miladi-Gorji H.

Summary: Background: In this study, we investigated whether the exercise would reduce the severity of dependence, stress, anxiety, depression, craving and serum levels of cortisol, and increase anandamide (AEA) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in opioid use disorder patients receiving the opium tincture (OT). This study was a pretest-posttest quasi- experimental design. Methods: Two groups of opioid-dependent patients (32 out of 47 men) were treated with OT and/or OT/exercise for 11 months. Both groups completed the questionnaires of Leeds Dependence, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, Desire for Drug Questionnaire before and after treatment. Also, venous blood was taken after 8 hours fasting before and after treatment to measure serum levels of cortisol, AEA, and BDNF. Results: We found no significant difference in the pretest–posttest difference scores of the severity of dependence, depression, stress, anxiety, craving, and levels of biomarkers in both groups and between two groups of patients receiving OT and OT/exercise. However, a comparison of pretest and posttest of two groups showed that maintenance treatment with OT significantly decreased the severity of dependence, depression, anxiety, stress and craving for opioid and increased serum level of BDNF in both groups of patients receiving OT and OT/exercise. Conclusions: We conclude that maintenance treatment with OT may be beneficial in the management of opioid withdrawal, but not exercise.