NCT03369769

Wellness Effects of Animal-assisted Activities With Autism Spectrum Disorder Youth in a Specialized Psychiatric Hospital

Physiological Wellness Effects of Animal-assisted Activities in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Specialized Psychiatric Hospital Program

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 75 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Colorado, Denver · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 4 Years – 16 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

Background: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are at higher risk for developing co-existing mental health conditions and consequently experiencing psychiatric hospitalization, compared to the general pediatric population. However, hospital environments can be exceptionally stressful for this population, given their social-communication deficits, ineffective emotional regulation skills and heightened physiological arousal. While the use of animal-assisted activities (AAA) show potential for various improvements in children with ASD in community settings, these "stress-reducing" and "social-buffering" benefits have not yet been studied within a psychiatric hospital setting for youth with ASD. Objectives: Evaluate whether an AAA with canines can lead to reduced physiological arousal and improvements in social-communication as well as aberrant behaviors in children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD in a specialized psychiatric hospital setting. Methods: Participants were recruited from the Neuropsychiatric Special Care (NSC) program's inpatient and/or partial day-treatment program. Prior to study participation, baseline demographic measures were acquired from caregivers and participants' ASD diagnosis was confirmed. Participants experienced two, randomly assigned 35-minute sessions (AAA and Control Condition) with a minimum two-day washout period between groups. Each session included a baseline 20-minute social skills group immediately followed by a 10 minute experimental or control condition. The AAA condition introduced a canine and volunteer handler for free interaction time while the control condition introduced a novel toy and a volunteer for free interaction. Participants' physiological arousal was continuously assessed throughout all conditions via the Empatica E-4 wristbands (Empatica Inc. 2014). All sessions were videotaped for behavioral coding using the Observation of Human Animal Interaction for Research - Modified, v.1.

Detailed description

Background: Children with ASD are at higher risk for developing co-existing mental health conditions and consequently experiencing psychiatric hospitalization, compared to the general pediatric population. However, hospital environments can be exceptionally stressful for this population, given their social-communication deficits, ineffective emotional regulation skills and heightened physiological arousal. While the use of animal-assisted activities (AAA) show potential for various improvements in children with ASD in community settings, these "stress-reducing" and "social-buffering" benefits have not yet been studied within a psychiatric hospital setting for youth with ASD. Objectives: Evaluate whether an AAA with canines can lead to reduced physiological arousal and improvements in social-communication as well as aberrant behaviors in children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD in a specialized psychiatric hospital setting. Methods: Participants were recruited from the Neuropsychiatric Special Care (NSC) program's inpatient and/or partial day-treatment program. Prior to study participation, baseline demographic measures were acquired from caregivers and participants' ASD diagnosis was confirmed. Participants experienced two, randomly assigned 35-minute sessions (AAA and Control Condition) with a minimum two-day washout period between groups. Each session included a baseline 20-minute social skills group immediately followed by a 10 minute experimental or control condition. The AAA condition introduced a canine and volunteer handler for free interaction time while the control condition introduced a novel toy and a volunteer for free interaction. Participants' physiological arousal was continuously assessed throughout all conditions via the Empatica E-4 wristbands (Empatica Inc. 2014). All sessions were videotaped for behavioral coding using the Observation of Human Animal Interaction for Research - Modified, v.1.

Conditions

• Child Behavior
• Autism Spectrum Disorder
• Psychiatric Hospitalization
• Veterinary Therapeutics

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Activity	10 minutes interaction with therapy dog and adult handler in small group (2-4 participants).

Timeline

• Start date: 2015-08-06
• Primary completion: 2017-02-27
• Completion: 2019-03-13
• First posted: 2017-12-12
• Last updated: 2019-05-20