The effect of animal-assisted therapy on emotional and behavioral symptoms in children and adolescents hospitalized for acute mental disorders

Introduction: Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) may be useful therapeutically to improve patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of AAT on behavioral and emotional symptoms reported by children and adolescent psychiatric patients hospitalized for acute mental disorders. Methods: A pre-post experimental design, randomized controlled trial (RCT) was carried out. 20 patients provided with an AAT intervention were compared with 20 patients receiving standard therapeutic treatment. A Youth Self-Report (YSR) was used to measure patients’ emotional and behavioral symptoms. Global functioning was assessed by the Children Global Assessment Scale (C-GAS). Results: Results indicated a significant decrease in internalizing symptoms (p < .001) and an increase in total competence (p < .001), as well significant improvements in global functioning (p < .0001) in the AAT treatment group, but not in the control group. Conclusions: The effects of AAT in reducing emotional and behavioral symptoms and increasing global competence and psychological functioning were substantiated in this study. We have also found that for internalization symptoms, AAT could be the more effective.