Animal-assisted therapy

Common card · No. 473277

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is an alternative or complementary type of therapy that includes the use of animals in a treatment. The goal of this animal-assisted intervention is to improve a patient's social, emotional, or cognitive functioning. Studies have documented some positive effects of the therapy on subjective self-rating scales and on objective physiological measures such as blood pressure and hormone levels. The specific animal-assisted therapy can be classified by the type of animal, the targeted population, and how the animal is incorporated into the therapeutic plan. Various animals have been utilized for animal-assisted therapy, with the most common types being canine-assisted therapy and equine-assisted therapy. Use of these animals in therapies has shown positives results in many cases, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, sexual abuse victims, dementia, and autism. It can be used in many different facilities, like hospitals, prisons, and...

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