Cognitive Effects Of The Online-instruction Exercise Intervention On Substance Abusers During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

PURPOSE: The outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the mental health of substance abusers in compulsory detoxification and rehabilitation centers (CDRC). It is necessary to find a practical way to improve their psychological state and emotional regulation under the lockdown situation. This study aimed to compare substance abusers’ emotional regulation and cognitive function with the "online instruction" in a CDRC. METHODS: 90 male drug dependents (50.31 ± 9.76 ys) were recruited from a CDRC and randomly assigned to Tai Chi (TC) group (n = 30), aerobic group (n = 30) and control group (n = 30). Subjects in the TC group practiced TC with online instruction and subjects in the aerobic group ran on treadmills and did free weight exercises 1 to 1.5 hours a session, 3 times per week for 12 weeks. The control group remained their daily intervention. Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), 1-back and flanker task were measured at baseline and after the intervention to compare the changes of emotional regulation ability and cognitive function. A repeated-measures ANOVA was applied to analyze the differences of time and group. RESULTS: The TC group showed decreased ERQ score in the expression inhibition dimension with a significant interaction effect between time and group (F(2,80) = 5.24,p < 0.05). The post-test score of the TC group was significantly lower than that of the aerobic group and control group (p = 0.003). Accuracy in 1-back task showed significant interaction effect between time and group (F (2,80) = 3.75, p < 0.05). Reaction time in Flanker task showed a significant difference between time, condition and group (F(2,80) = 6.09,p < 0.05) CONCLUSIONS: The findings showed that online instruction of TC can improve emotional regulation, working memory and inhibitory. It indicated that TC intervention based on online videos is a feasible rehabilitation intervention therapy in line with the current pandemic situation for substance abusers.