The Comparison Of Sleep Quality And Depression After Tai Chi Intervention On Methamphetamine-type Drug Abusers In China

Abstract

Tai Chi (TC) is recognized as being beneficial for men and women over a wide age range, several studies evaluated the effect of Tai Chi on psychological responses including depression, distress, well-being, life satisfaction, perception of health. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the sleep quality and depression of methamphetamine-type-drug abusers after 12 weeks TC intervention. 82 female methamphetamine-type drug abusers from a Shanghai compulsory detoxification institution (SCDI) took part in a 12 weeks trial. Participants were randomly assigned to TC group (N=43) and Standard Care (SC) group (N=39). SC intervention consisted of the 9th Guang Bo Ti Cao (broadcast gymnastics), sign language exercise and self-education. METHODS: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) were administrated by experienced investigators. An in-group comparison of the pre- and post-test scores was performed by conducting paired sample t-tests, whereas between-group comparisons of pre-test scores and 12-week post-test scores were performed by conducting independent t-tests. Paired sample t-test was conducted for in-group comparison, and the independent t-test was used for between-group comparison. RESULTS: The between-group independent t-test results of SDS and PSQI indicated that there was no significant difference between TC and SC groups at the baseline. The scores of SDS were 48.5±8.2 in TC and 49.9±9.3 in SC group. The total scores of PSQI were 5.07±2.43 in TC and 5.89±3.25 in SC group, respectively. The post-test results of SDS displayed no significant difference between TC and SC groups but the score of SDS in TC group was 48.8 while the score of SDS in SC group increased to 52.6, almost 4 points higher than TC group. The total score of post-test PSQI indicated that there was a significant difference between TC and SC groups (p=0.045) with a total score of PSQI in TC of 3.86±2.71 and in SC of 5.32±3.02. The TC’s total score decreased with more than 1 point comparing to the baseline, while the SC’s total score only showed a slight decrease. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study showed that TC can improve the sleep quality and ameliorate depression for methamphetamine-type drug abusers. It is also noteworthy to indicate that a TC intervention has organisational advantages as well, because it is low-cost and can be self-managed by participants.