The use of Animal-Assisted Therapy in adolescents with acute mental disorders: A randomized controlled study

Stefanini, Maria Cristina; Martino, Antonella; Allori, Paola; Galeotti, F.; Tani, Franca

doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2015.01.001

Cited by 52 publications

(75 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Three of the included studies investigated patients in child and adolescent psychiatry [45, 46, 48], and one studied patients from adult psychiatry [47]. All of the studies comprised 12 week DAT programs in different settings except for the study conducted by Calvo et al, where the intervention lasted 24 weeks [47].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both studies conducted by Stefanini et al DAT was compared with standard treatment in children and adolescents admitted to a psychiatry unit for acute mental disorder [46, 48], while Schuck et al compared cognitive-behavioral intervention delivered with or without DAT in children with ADHD [45]. In the study by Calvo et al [47] of adult inpatients with schizophrenia, DAT was assessed as an adjunct to, and in comparison with, conventional psychosocial rehabilitation.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Patient benefit of dog-assisted interventions in health care: a systematic review

Lundqvist

Carlsson

Sjödahl

et al. 2017

BMC Complement Altern Med

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BackgroundDogs are the most common companion animal, and therefore not surprisingly a popular choice for animal-assisted interventions. Dog-assisted interventions are increasingly used in healthcare. The aim of the review was to conduct a systematic literature review of quantitative studies on dog-assisted interventions in healthcare, with the intention of assessing the effects and cost-effectiveness of the interventions for different categories of patients.MethodsA systematic review of the scientific literature reporting results of studies in healthcare, nursing home or home care settings, was conducted. The inclusion criteria applied for this review were: quantitative studies, inclusion of at least 20 study subjects, existence of a control and performed in healthcare settings including nursing homes and home care. The electronic databases PubMed, AMED, CINAHL and Scopus were searched from their inception date through January 2017, for published articles from peer-reviewed journals with full text in English.ResultsEighteen studies that fulfilled the inclusion criteria, and were judged to be of at least moderate quality, were included in the analysis. Three of them showed no effect. Fifteen showed at least one significant positive effect but in most studied outcome measures there was no significant treatment effect. Dog-assisted therapy had the greatest potential in treatment of psychiatric disorders among both young and adult patients. Dog-assisted activities had some positive effects on health, wellbeing, depression and quality of life for patients with severe cognitive disorders. Dog-assisted support had positive effects on stress and mood.ConclusionsThe overall assessment of the included studies indicates minor to moderate effects of dog-assisted therapy in psychiatric conditions, as well as for dog-assisted activities in cognitive disorders and for dog-assisted support in different types of medical interventions. However, the majority of studied outcome measures showed no significant effect.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12906-017-1844-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Patient benefit of dog-assisted interventions in health care: a systematic review

Lundqvist

Carlsson

Sjödahl

et al. 2017

BMC Complement Altern Med

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“…We used a pre-post experimental design (T0-T1) with a randomized controlled trial (RCT); 20 patients who underwent AAT were compared with 20 patients who received standard therapeutic treatment. In our analyses, we focused on: the improvement in clinical status using global functioning, measured with the Children Global Assessment Scale (C GAS) [The Children Global Assessment Scale-C GAS [21] provides a measurement of global functioning in children and adolescents (6-17 years old), with a rating scale ranging from 0 to 100 points], the format of care and the regular school attendance measured by a rating scale; we found that there were significant differences between the treatment and control groups with changes occurring from T0 to T1, in particular, there was a major increase in the format of hospital care (t (32)=2.41, p=0.02), regular school attendance (t (32)=2.25, p<0.03), and global functioning (t (32)=4.57, p<0.0001), in the treatment group [20] using the Italian version of Youth Self Report (YSR) [by [22] a self-report questionnaire designed for children and adolescents from 11 to 18 years old, comprising 119 clinical items], and these results indicated a significant decrease in internalizing symptoms (p<0.001) and an increase in total competence (p<0.001), as well significant improvements in global functioning (p<0.0001) in the AAT treatment group, but not in the control group [20,23].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…purposes, in the hospital environment, are aimed at limiting the damage of acute psychic failure and safeguarding the patients from excessive external stimuli while at the same time continuing to offer a minimum experience of everyday life (school, external social activities, supportive relationships, etc.). Since 2011, Animal-Assisted Activities (AAA) and AAT have been carried out within this Unit and the effectiveness of this kind of treatment has been studied in depth [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Study of the Acceptance and Perceived Efficacy of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for Parents and Nurses in the Psychiatry Unit of Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence - Italy

MC¹,

Bigalli²

2016

J Community Med Health Educ

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Objectives: This short paper is part of wider research aimed at comparing the effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with a standard treatment protocol in 20 children and adolescents admitted to psychiatry hospitals for severe mental breakdown (with RCT). After analysing the global results we concluded that the benefits could not only be described in terms of direct effectiveness and care outcomes, but there were also other factors that we should consider, in particular in relation to the context of care. The focus was to analyze those factors, because the results of this treatment were quite distinctive and specific to AAT. The main purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which parents and nurses accept the effects of AAT and perceive its efficacy.Method: For this purpose, at the end of the AAT treatment, we gave a specially formulated questionnaire to both parents and nurses.Results: Data analyses showed that nurses evaluate AAT to be very efficient in improving both the adolescent's quality of stay in hospital and also their compliance with the care provided. Parents expressed a strong acceptance of AAT and evaluated this treatment as an efficient way to both improve the way in which their children express emotions and also facilitate their social skills. Conclusion:The study confirms, in a wider context, the results of our previous studies, not only on the clinical efficacy of AAT, but also on the perceived efficacy for parents and hospital staff and in the general context of care. This underlines the importance to further analyze the factors related to the environment and document the indirect benefits related to a more positive care environment.

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“…4 It has been reported that animal-assisted therapy positively helps children with mental and physical disorders in physical, cognitive, and emotional ways. 5 Horseback riding is a typical exercise that may improve emotional stability and healthy fitness by communing with a horse. 6 Moreover, studies on the exercise or mental effects of horseback riding have been conducted, [7][8][9] but ones on the therapeutic effect in children with ADHD have not been reported yet.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of 4 Weeks of Horseback Riding on Anxiety, Depression, and Self-Esteem in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Lee

Park

et al. 2017

JOMH

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The use of Animal-Assisted Therapy in adolescents with acute mental disorders: A randomized controlled study

Cited by 52 publications

References 9 publications

Patient benefit of dog-assisted interventions in health care: a systematic review

Patient benefit of dog-assisted interventions in health care: a systematic review

Study of the Acceptance and Perceived Efficacy of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) for Parents and Nurses in the Psychiatry Unit of Meyer Children’s Hospital in Florence - Italy

Effects of 4 Weeks of Horseback Riding on Anxiety, Depression, and Self-Esteem in Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

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