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Veterinary Sciences
Special Issues
Animal-Assisted Therapy in Clinical Rehabilitation
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Animal-Assisted Therapy in Clinical Rehabilitation

A special issue of Veterinary Sciences (ISSN 2306-7381). This special issue belongs to the section "Veterinary Education, Veterinary Communication and Animal Behavior".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2023) | Viewed by 6526

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lainie Cameron

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Southern Queensland, Queensland, Australia
Interests: exercise for rehabilitation; clinical decision making; animal assisted therapy (canine and equine); systematic reviews of clinical interventions
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Samanatha Brown

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Psychology and Wellbeing, University of Southern Queensland, Queensland, Australia
Interests: animal assisted therapy (canine); psychology of trauma

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Animal-assisted therapy is the inclusion or animals within clinical interventions with humans to achieve specific therapeutic goals. Animals may be included in the delivery of clinical care because they are expected to reduce patients’ anxiety, stress, or clinical symptoms, increase patients’ engagement in therapy, or increase their interaction with practitioners. Animal-assisted therapy is an emerging extension to clinical practice in many areas of healthcare. Animals may also be engaged in healthcare services to support human clinicians, without necessarily interacting directly with patients.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue of Veterinary Science focused on the contributions made by assistance animals and therapy animals to the clinical care of humans. We are seeking manuscripts from across the breadth of human clinical practice, including medical, nursing, and allied health interventions, as well as alternative and complementary therapies. We also welcome studies exploring the value of the engagement between therapy animals and clinicians, as well as studies investigating the health, comfort, and wellbeing of therapy animals during their work.

In this Special Issue, we aim to include original research manuscripts, particularly clinical trials and systemic reviews of clinical trials of animal-assisted clinical interventions. Although we expect that most studies will include domesticated animals, submissions are not limited to specific animal species.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Lainie Cameron
Dr. Samanatha Brown
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Veterinary Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • animal-assisted therapy
  • clinical interventions
  • assistance animals
  • therapy animals
  • clinical rehabilitation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 933 KiB  
Article
Horses’ Tactile Reactivity Differs According to the Type of Work: The Example of Equine-Assisted Intervention
by Céline Rochais, Noémie Lerch, Léa Gueguen, Margaux Schmidlin, Ombeline Bonamy, Marine Grandgeorge and Martine Hausberger
Vet. Sci. 2023, 10(2), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci10020130 - 7 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3560
Abstract
Tactile perception in humans varies between individuals and could depend on extrinsic factors such as working activity. In animals, there is no study relating the influence of animals’ work and their tactile reactivity per se. We investigated horses’ tactile reactivity using von [...] Read more.
Tactile perception in humans varies between individuals and could depend on extrinsic factors such as working activity. In animals, there is no study relating the influence of animals’ work and their tactile reactivity per se. We investigated horses’ tactile reactivity using von Frey filament in different body areas and compared horses working only in equine-assisted interventions (EAI), in riding school (RS) lessons, and in both activities (EAI-RS). We further compared tactile actions by people with or without mental and/or developmental disorders during brushing sessions. The results indicated that EAI horses showed higher tactile reactivity compared to EAI-RS and RS horses, both in terms of number of reactions overall, and especially when the test involved thin filaments. All horses showed high tactile reactivity when tested on the stifle, and this was particularly true for EAI horses. These differences could be related to humans’ actions, as participants diagnosed with disorders brushed more the hindquarters and showed more fragmented actions. This study opens new lines of thought on the influence of EAI working activity on horses’ tactile reactivity, and hence, on horses’ sensory perception. Tactile reactivity outside work, may be directly (via tactile stimulations) or indirectly (via the welfare state), influenced by working conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal-Assisted Therapy in Clinical Rehabilitation)
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Review

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13 pages, 439 KiB  
Review
The Effect of Dog Presence on the Therapeutic Alliance: A Systematic Review
by Timothy Collier, Pauleen Bennett, Vanessa Rohlf and Tiffani Howell
Vet. Sci. 2022, 9(12), 669; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci9120669 - 1 Dec 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2197
Abstract
The development of a therapeutic alliance represents one of the most important processes that occurs in psychological therapy and is one of the strongest predictors of treatment outcome. To ensure the effective delivery of psychological interventions, it is important to explore factors which [...] Read more.
The development of a therapeutic alliance represents one of the most important processes that occurs in psychological therapy and is one of the strongest predictors of treatment outcome. To ensure the effective delivery of psychological interventions, it is important to explore factors which may improve the therapeutic alliance. There are well-documented effects of human–animal interactions in social settings, and researchers have also considered the effect of dog presence on the therapeutic alliance. A systematic review was conducted in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) checklist. Database searches included CINAHL, Cochrane, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and Scopus. The inclusion criteria were studies that assessed the effect of dog presence on the therapeutic alliance and provided a quantitative outcome measure. Six studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the systematic review. Three of the included studies observed no significant effect of dog presence on the therapeutic alliance; three studies did observe a positive effect, with effect sizes ranging from d = 0.10 to d = 0.58. All six studies took place in either research or clinical settings. Studies differed in terms of help-seeking versus non-help-seeking populations, where help-seeking populations were genuinely pursuing a psychological intervention. Heterogeneity was observed regarding study procedure and outcome measures used. Current data is limited, and initial evidence suggests that the effect of dog presence on the therapeutic alliance remains unclear, illustrated by inconsistent outcomes across the included studies. Further research is warranted before introducing dogs into therapeutic settings for this purpose. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Animal-Assisted Therapy in Clinical Rehabilitation)
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