Animal Assisted Therapy Essay

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From childhood to adulthood, two of the most experienced mental health disorder are depression and anxiety. Animal-assisted therapy has been very effective in patients that suffer from a major depressive disorder, also known as depression. This disorder is very common and interferes with a person’s daily life and activities. Feelings of sadness overtake a person’s daily life and lead to the uninterest of regular routines and activities.The traditional way of dealing with depression is giving patients antidepressants. However, it is known that previous treatments such as antidepressant drugs haven’t been effective towards patients. Hoffmann (2009) did a study in which he and his colleagues confirmed that Animal-assisted therapy is a healthy …show more content…

Same results were found in a similar study by Sandra B. Barker and Kathryn S. Dawson (1998). Barker and Dawson (1998) did a pre and post treatment crossover design to compare changes in anxiety ratings among 230 patients after two 30 minutes sessions. The two sessions consisted of a single animal-assisted therapy group session and the other one consisted of single therapeutic recreation group session. It was found that “The reduction in anxiety scores for patients with psychotic disorders was twice as great after animal-assisted therapy” (Barker, Dawson, 1998, pg 4). Animal-assisted therapy creates a positive interaction between humans, especially between a patient and it’s therapist. It’s one of the safest ways to increase interaction, and it provides a sense of safety and comfort that it is not found in the common and known “traditional” therapies (Arnold 1995). The presence of a dog or any animal can surely make a difference in therapy sessions. While the anxiety ratings decreased after just thirty minutes of being exposed to a dog’s presence, more exposure to therapy sessions with dogs present can help maintain the anxiety of patients low and decrease depressive

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