Table 1. Extracted data and quality appraisal.

Study	Country	Number of Participants	Type of addictive behavior	Medical treatment of the addictive behavior	Type of stress-management intervention	Combined interventions	Interventional program details	Suggested frequency of technique’s practice	Measures of stress	Time point of the assessments	Main findings	Jadad Scale Scoring
Giacobbi et al. 2018	United States	48	Food craving	None	GI	Health education- workbook	Information about diet, exercise and stress management and GI scripts administrated at an initial assessment. The participants recorded their process in the workbook given during the study period	Every day	PSS	Baseline and after 6 weeks	No statistically significant effect on stress	2 points
Linardatou et al., 2014	Greece	45	Gambling	The sample participate at an anonymous group therapy intervention	PMR	Psychoeducation concerning healthy lifestyle and stress management	At the first week, all participants were taught PMR and provided an instructional audio CD. In addition, they received verbal and written psychoeducation concerning healthy lifestyle and stress-coping behaviors	Twice a day	DASS-21 stress subscale	Baseline and after 8 weeks	Statistically significant differences were recorded at the endpoint assessment (p<0.00), which were in favor of the intervention group. A strong effect size was also recorded (r=0.77).	1 point
Pawlow et al., 2003	United States	20	NES	None	PMR	None	20 minutes of PMR, instructed face-to-face and practiced afterwards through an audio CD	Once per day	PSS and salivary cortisol	Pre-and post intervention at day 1, pre and post-intervention and day 8	Lower PSS scores for the intervention group compared to the control at the first post-session assessment (p<0.05) and at the second pre-session assessment (p<0.01). Significant decreases in PSS over time in the intervention group (p<0.01). A statistically significant effect was also recorded between the pre and post assessment of salivary cortisol in the intervention group (p<0.05).	2 points
Schmidt& Martin, 2016	Germany	75	Binge eating	None	Mental Imagery	None	10 sessions of approximately 35 minutes each	NA	PSQ	Pre-intervention, post-intervention and after 3 months	No significant effects were noted for stress (p=0.052)	2 points

Abbreviations: DASS-21, Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale 21; GI, Guided Imagery; NES, Night Eating Syndrome; PMR, Progressive Muscle Relaxation; PSQ, Perceived Stress Questionnaire; PSS, Perceived Stress Scale