14 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The overall purpose of this study is to determine feasibility and preliminary efficacy of pet therapy, or human-animal interactions (HAI), for children (5-12 years of age) with or at risk for LD. Children among 4 reading groups will be randomly assigned to a HAI intervention or control group. The 2 HAI intervention reading groups will receive visits from a registered canine team during children's small group reading sessions twice a week over 12 weeks. The 2 control reading groups will receive care as usual and offered a 1-time visit from the dog at the end of the study (after T3 completed). Two weeks of initial work will focus on preliminary modifications to the protocol. Parents will complete electronic measures of psychological outcomes (child depression, anxiety, QOL) via REDCap at baseline (T1), 2 weeks post-baseline (T2), and 12 weeks post-baseline (T3). The investigators will obtain copies of reading assessments already conducted by the teachers at T1 and T3. Children's salivary cortisol will be obtained from participants in the intervention groups at T1, T2, and T3. Children and their parents will complete concluding interviews at study end (T3) to further inform what they liked and did not like about the intervention. Results of the proposed study will provide critical data for a future full-scale randomized clinical trial (R01) to examine the impact of HAI on psychological, physiological, and reading outcomes in children with or at risk for LD.
This study will evaluate the effects of human-animal interaction on reducing anxiety, depression, worry, and pain and enhancing quality of life in children ages 6-17 years old with a life threatening cancer and their parent caregivers.
This study evaluates the addition of therapy dogs in inpatient physical and occupational therapy. Data will be collected across 10 PT and 10 OT sessions, half of which will incorporate a therapy dog.
This study investigates the roles of oxytocin pathways in human-animal interaction.
This study investigated the human-animal interaction (HAI) and bond (HAB) between a canine trained in therapy techniques or a canine plush toy and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) during animal-assisted therapy (AAT) sessions. The purpose of this study is to explore identified gaps in knowledge pertaining to AAT in pediatric ASD care management by documenting human interaction between either a live canine or the plush toy canine during AAT sessions and evaluating prosocial behaviors observed during and after AAT sessions. This study addressed the following research questions: 1. How do children with autism ages 2 to 18 years interact with a live canine during AAT sessions? 2. How do children with autism ages 2 to 18 years interact with a toy plush dog during AAT sessions? 3. Is there a difference in HAI in the live canine group and the toy plush dog group? 4. Is there a difference in prosocial behavior observed during AAT sessions between the live canine group and the toy plush dog group? 5. Is there a difference in behavior after AAT sessions between the live canine group and the toy plush dog group? Participants were randomly assigned to either the live canine or toy plush dog group. Adaptive functioning and social responsiveness evaluations were obtained to compare baseline behavior between the two groups. Participants attended an AAT session once weekly for 6 to 8 weeks. Each group received the same therapy provided by the therapist; the only difference being the incorporation of a live canine during the therapy session. Caregivers completed a weekly assessment depicting participants' positive and negative affect at the beginning of each session. Caregivers also completed a monthly assessment noting strengths and difficulties in social functioning and behavior at the start of the first, middle, and final session. AAT sessions were recorded and behavior occurring during the sessions was coded to note HAI and HAB that occurred during the sessions.
Dog ownership can serve as a vehicle for large-scale multi-level public health interventions, especially for pediatric overweight and obesity, due to dogs' unique place in children and adolescents' social networks.This study develops and tests a novel approach to design a Canine Health-Literacy module to enhance a Comprehensive Family Lifestyle Intervention BodyWorks, for dog-owning adolescents who have been diagnosed with overweight or obesity, and their parents. The results are anticipated to make an important step towards addressing the overweight and obesity epidemic among both people and companion dogs in the U.S.
Americans love pets. Nearly 1 in 2 American households (44%) own at least one pet dog and more than 1 in 3 (35%) own a cat. The bond people form with their pets can be powerful and can provide many mental and physical health benefits. In the case of pet dogs, a strong dog-owner bond increases the odds of regular dog walking, which can help owners meet physical activity guidelines. When the bond is strong, owners feel a sense of responsibility to walk the dog, as well as motivation and social support to walk. Dog walking may be a particularly sustainable form of physical activity as dogs require regular exercise throughout their lives, across all seasons. Owners less bonded to their dogs are less likely to walk them regularly and 40% of owners report never walking their dog. Obedience training may strengthen the dog-owner bond. Thus, the proposed study will test the hypotheses that obedience training can 1) strengthen the dog-owner bond, and 2) promote physical activity among owners. Forty dog owners who do not regularly walk their dog will be randomized to a 6-week obedience training course (n=20) or a control group that does not receive dog training (n=20). The investigators will assess the strength of the dog-owner bond (via questionnaires) and physical activity levels (via a wearable activity monitor) before training, immediately after completing training, and 6 weeks after completing training. The hypothesis is that the dog-owner bond will strengthen and physical activity levels will increase in the intervention group as compared to the control group. As over 50 million American households own a dog, support for this hypothesis would support further investigation of dog obedience training as a novel strategy for promoting public health.
The objective of this study is to apply a rigorous experimental design to test whether children's interactions with therapy dogs increase immediate prosocial behavior and reduce immediate biological response to stress.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an invisible wound of war, affects approximately 20%1 of the 18.5 million U.S. veterans and places them at higher risk for impaired biopsychosocial functioning. PTSD symptom severity (PTSDSS) is significantly correlated with stress and psychosocial consequences of inability to regulate emotions, control impulsive behaviors, and function within family and society. Alarming veteran PTSD rates and its insidious effects demand empirically validated treatment programs. More than a million veterans receive new diagnoses of each year. VA PTSD therapy programs reach only 1% of veterans. Nearly 35% of veterans do not respond to widely used psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy treatments. Training a service dog (SD) is a novel rehabilitative animal-assisted intervention that shows promise in other populations. This project evaluates the efficacy of a service dog training program (SDTP) as an alternative and adjunctive treatment and rehabilitative option for veterans with PTSD.
Adolescence and young adulthood is a critical period for the development of social anxiety, which is often linked to other mental health challenges such as depression, mood disorders, and substance abuse. Initial evidence suggests that interacting with animals can reduce stress and anxiety, but no research has tested whether this benefit extends to adolescents at risk for social anxiety disorder. Additionally, researchers and clinicians do not understand what mechanism is responsible for anxiety reduction in animal-assisted interventions (AAIs). Therefore, the objectives of this study are to explore the specific mechanisms by which interacting with a therapy dog reduces anxiety, and to test whether such an interaction reduces anxiety in adolescents with varying levels of social anxiety.
The purpose of this study is to quantify the therapeutic efficacy and role of trained service dogs on socio-emotional functioning among military veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The purpose of this study is to assess the efficacy of a 10-minute therapy dog visitation (TDV) in reducing biobehavioral stress responses among hospitalized school-age children by comparing responses between TDV and non-TDV control groups.
The purpose of this study is to assess the preliminary efficacy of a 10-minute therapy dog visitation (TDV) in reducing biobehavioral stress responses.
Studies show that family members share as much or more of the composition of their microbiota (the trillions of micro-organisms in our guts) with their dogs as they do with each other (Song et. al. 2013). This shows that the introduction of dogs into home environments has a profound impact on the human microbiota. Additionally, many studies show that children raised with dogs are less likely than others to develop a range of immune-mediated disorders, including asthma and allergies (Ownby, Johnson, and Peterson 2002; Almqvist et al. 2003; Havstad et al. 2011). This suggests that dogs can serve as probiotics for children by appropriately training their immune systems not to produce inflammation in response to harmless stimuli. What is not known, however, is whether the same is true for elderly populations and dogs. Thus, this study seeks to explore whether dogs might also improve the physical and mental health of elderly adults by improving the structure and function of their microbiota. The investigators propose a pilot/proof of concept study to investigate whether dogs might improve the physical and mental health of elderly adults via changing (improving) the structure and function of their microbiota (gut flora). The investigators propose a pre-post study design that among 20 elderly individuals (aged 50 and older) to investigate the probiotic effect that dogs might have on these individuals. The investigators are particularly interested to know whether introducing a dog into a home where one has not lived in the recent past increases the "positive" microorganisms in the guts of the humans living with them. The investigators will also measure the changes in markers of inflammation (from blood samples) as well as the changes in self-reported scores of depression, frailty, physical activity, and general health and well-being mobility among human participants. In order to assess any effects in the animal study participants, the investigators will also collect and analyze fecal and blood samples as well as conduct home visits to observe canine and human interactions and bonding and conduct assessments of canine well-being using questionnaires/observational techniques that have been validated for these purposes in other studies. Additionally, the investigators will assess the interactions between of the participants with the dog and how having a dog in the home may influence an individual's relationship with the dog and his/her thoughts about the microbiota, human and canine health and human-animal interactions through monthly semi-structured interviews. The investigators have previously received IACUC approval for this study, approval number 14-537.