THE EFFECTS OF ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY ON ANXIETY RATINGS OF HOSPITALIZED PSYCHIATRIC-PATIENTS

Objective: Animal-assisted therapy involves interaction between patien ts and a trained animal, along with its human owner or handler, with t he aim of facilitating patients' progress toward therapeutic goals. Th is study examined whether a session of animal-assisted therapy reduced the anxiety levels of hospitalized psychiatric patients and whether a ny differences in reductions in anxiety were associated with patients' diagnoses. Methods: Study subjects were 230 patients referred for the rapeutic recreation sessions. A pre-and posttreatment crossover study design was used to compare the effects of a single animal-assisted the rapy session with those of a single regularly scheduled therapeutic re creation session. Before and after participating in the two types of s essions, subjects completed the state scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, a self-report measure of anxiety currently felt. A mixed-m odels repeated-measures analysis was used to test differences in score s from before and after the two types df sessions. Results: Statistica lly significant reductions in anxiety scores were found after the anim al-assisted therapy session for patients with psychotic disorders, moo d disorders, and other disorders, and after the therapeutic recreation session for patients with mood disorders. No statistically significan t differences in reduction of anxiety were found between the two types of sessions. Conclusions: Animal-assisted therapy was associated with reduced state anxiety levels for hospitalized patients with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses, while a routine therapeutic recreation sess ion was associated with reduced levels only for patients with mood dis orders.