Effects of Animal-Assisted Activity on Mood States and Feelings in a Psychiatric Setting

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Research has shown that animal-assisted activity (AAA) effectively improves physiological, psychological, emotional, and social well-being in various environments. AIMS: To identify how AAA affects mood states and feelings among both patients and staff on inpatient psychiatric units. METHODS: This study used a quasi-experimental, pre-/posttest design with nonequivalent comparison groups. Quantitative data were collected using the Visual Analog Mood Scale. Demographic data, with an open-ended question, were obtained postsessions. RESULTS: Significant changes were observed pre- and postexposure to AAA sessions with a therapy dog. Negative moods decreased, and positive moods increased as measured by the Visual Analog Mood Scale. Content analysis identified themes of feeling happy, feeling relaxed, and feeling calm. CONCLUSIONS: This research expands scientific evidence associated with AAA by identifying changes in mood states and feelings among individuals in a psychiatric setting.

Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Hospitalized Children and Teenagers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Stability of HR and lower BP could be assumed to mean that pain is well controlled and that the children's psychological status was reasonably good. BP and HR are not independent clinical signs and they are associated with pain and other subjective feelings (Brown et al, 2019). Due to the limited evidence, one cannot decisively conclude that they were not influenced by AAT.…”

“…The intended primary social outcome of AAT is provision of a pleasant and humanizing experience with an animal to enhance happiness and connection between humans by breaking the monotonous in-hospital routine, brightening the day, and establishing human-animal bonds and interactions (Beetz, 2017;Fine & Beck, 2010;McCune et al, 2020). It is recognized that AAT can not only improve adolescents' moods and feelings during hospitalization (Baek, Lee, & Sohng, 2020;Brown et al, 2019), but also influence their medical outcomes including pain, anxiety, depression, stress, blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) (Beetz, 2017). These medical effects are added bonuses to the intended outcomes of AAT (Borgi et al, 2020;Charry-Sánchez et al, 2018).…”

Animal-Assisted Intervention and Health Care Workers’ Psychological Health: A Systematic Review of the Literature

“…Most of the included studies had a quantitative approach (n = 11) [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71] and one had a qualitative approach [72]. Four studies were RCT (two had a cross-over design), one had a quasi-experimental design, four were before-after studies, one was a mixed-method study, one had a cross-sectional design, and one relied on qualitative data (Table 1).…”

“…In the Jensen et al [65] study, pediatric nurses who worked in a children's hospital with a pet dog felt greater personal fulfillment at work (key dimension of burnout) and reported more positive descriptions of work, greater work-related enthusiasm, and less work-related depression than the control group who worked without a facility dog. Other studies examined the effects of AAI/ATT on various work-related aspects and nurses' well-being and job satisfaction [65][66][67][68][69][70][71].…”

Dog Therapy for Staff in a Pediatric Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Project

“…The ED staff support clinician added dog therapy to some of these monthly check-in meetings based on staff requests and studies demonstrating, for example, that exposure to therapy dogs buffers stress responses (Fiocco & Hunse, 2017) and enhances mood (Brown et al, 2019). Ginex et al (2018) noted that healthcare staff reported higher compassion toward their patients and lower burnout compared to baseline when participating in a dog therapy program on their unit.…”