[Establishment of an Animal Based Therapy at a University Hospital for Psychiatry: Results of a Preliminary Study and Future Prospects].
Objective: Dogs have been integrated in human society over centuries. This process has selected unique social and communicative skills. Dogs are thus able to represent social substitutes for human counterparts in cases of social withdrawal. Furthermore, dogs act as "social catalysts" in promoting interhuman encounters. Thus, the integration of dogs in psychotherapeutic concepts addressing social and interpersonal deficits may be of special interest. Methods: The present investigation reports the results of a pilot study to establish animal-assisted therapy (dogs) at a psychiatric department. The animal-assisted intervention straddled the following areas: (1) contact making, communication and orientation to needs, (2) recreation and play, (3) outward orientation, (4) release and farewell. The sample comprised 22 subjects. Results: The results demonstrated in particular that the animal-assisted intervention significantly promoted unspecific aspects of positive affectivity and wellbeing. Evaluation of the overall acceptance of the dog on the psychiatric ward revealed very positive feedback. Conclusions: We conclude that animal-assisted therapies represent a significant enchrichment of the therapeutic context, that may be used to enhance the patients' openness and adherence to conventional therapies.