A descriptive study of exercise dependence: a short report among Italian and Japanese runners

BACKGROUND: Exercise dependence is a phenomenon characterized by behavioral, physiological and psychological symptoms similarly to substance use disorders. Although exercise addiction is not classified as a mental health disorder. A descriptive study of exercise dependence in two different countries, Italy and for the first time Japan was performed.METHODS: We interviewed 229 Italian and 198 Japanese runners by using the exercise dependence scale-21 (EDS-R), a questionnaire to assess exercise dependence.RESULTS: In Italy, 86.9% of subjects were nondependent symptomatic, 4.4% wxercise-dependent, and 8.7% were nondependent asymptomatic. In Japan, participants were classified as nondependent symptomatic (49%) and nondependent asymptomatic (51%), but none considered as at-risk. Significant differences were found in all the seven EDS-R categories between the two cohorts.CONCLUSIONS: Exercise dependence is a complex with many contributing factors such as neuroadaptation to protracted exposure to exercise, runner's features and contextual factors. The role of social and cultural factors of exercise dependence would need further investigations.