Trial reportMilitary Medical Research2018
Effects of therapeutic horseback riding on post-traumatic stress disorder in military veterans.
Trial report in Military Medical Research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05422768 (PTSD Clinical Team Research Clinic), which is not on this map. Cited by 34 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
PTSD Clinical Team Research Clinic (PCT Research Clinic)
Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Drop-out rates in animal-assisted psychotherapy - Results of a quantitative meta-analysis.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Are equine-assisted services beneficial for military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder? A systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Is exercise/physical activity effective at reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults - A systematic review.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring the Role of Social Connection in Interventions With Military Veterans Diagnosed With Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: Systematic Narrative Review.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Pooled it
- Psychodynamic Based Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Adults with Intertwined Personality Problems and Traumatization: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Equine-assisted interventions for veterans with service-related health conditions: a systematic mapping review.Military Medical Research · 2019Pooled it
- Multi-Modal Feature Fusion and Hierarchical Classification for Automated Equine-Human Interaction Behavior Recognition.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Complementary and integrative health interventions for PTSD in Veterans and family members: A rapid systematic review and meta-analysis.Journal of military, veteran and family health · 2026Article
- Animal-Assisted Therapy for Reducing Anxiety in Vulnerable Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Horsepower: equine-assisted interventions are associated with reduced PTSD symptoms, improved sleep quality, and quality of life in military veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- A non-trauma-focused equine-assisted intervention was associated with reductions in all four PTSD symptom clusters in treatment-resistant military veterans.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Horseback riding injuries in Sweden: a nationwide register-based study of fracture incidence.European journal of orthopaedic surgery & traumatology : orthopedie traumatologie · 2025Observational
- A Pilot Observational Study in Ohio, USA of the Healing of Our Veterans Equine Services Intensive Intervention for Veterans with Trauma Histories.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- A Multi-Site Observational Evaluation of the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association Model of Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy for Veteran Trauma Survivors.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Observational
- The relationship of early life adversity and physiological synchrony within the therapeutic triad in horse-assisted therapy.Journal of neural transmission (Vienna, Austria : 1996) · 2025Article
- Are Equine Assisted Interactions (EAI) a Dark Horse Bet? A Systematic Review on Measuring the Psychological and Physiological Effects of EAI on PTSD, Anxiety and/or Mood Disorders.Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- An exploratory study of dialectical behaviour therapy for emotional dysregulation and challenging behaviours after acquired brain injury.NeuroRehabilitation · 2024Article
- Ground-based adaptive horsemanship lessons for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder: a randomized controlled pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Potential Mechanisms of Action and Outcomes of Equine-Assisted Services for Veterans with a History of Trauma: A Narrative Review of the Literature.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Review
- Human-Animal Interaction in Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI)s: Zoonosis Risks, Benefits, and Future Directions-A One Health Approach.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
13 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundLarge numbers of post-deployment U.S. veterans are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or traumatic brain injury (TBI), leading to an urgent need for effective interventions to reduce symptoms and increase veterans' coping. PTSD includes anxiety, flashbacks, and emotional numbing. The symptoms increase health care costs for stress-related illnesses and can make veterans' civilian life difficult.
methodsWe used a randomized wait-list controlled design with repeated measures of U.S. military veterans to address our specific aim to test the efficacy of a 6-week therapeutic horseback riding (THR) program for decreasing PTSD symptoms and increasing coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, social and emotional loneliness. Fifty-seven participants were recruited and 29 enrolled in the randomized trial. They were randomly assigned to either the horse riding group (n = 15) or a wait-list control group (n = 14). The wait-list control group experienced a 6-week waiting period, while the horse riding group began THR. The wait-list control group began riding after 6 weeks of participating in the control group. Demographic and health history information was obtained from all the participants. PTSD symptoms were measured using the standardized PTSD Checklist-Military Version (PCL-M). The PCL-M as well as other instruments including, The Coping Self Efficacy Scale (CSES), The Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and The Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale for Adults-short version (SELSA) were used to access different aspects of individual well-being and the PTSD symptoms.
resultsParticipants had a statistically significant decrease in PTSD scores after 3 weeks of THR (P ≤ 0.01) as well as a statistically and clinically significant decrease after 6 weeks of THR (P ≤ 0.01). Logistic regression showed that participants had a 66.7% likelihood of having lower PTSD scores at 3 weeks and 87.5% likelihood at 6 weeks. Under the generalized linear model(GLM), our ANOVA findings for the coping self-efficacy, emotion regulation, and social and emotional loneliness did not reach statistical significance. The results for coping self-efficacy and emotion regulation trended in the predicted direction. Results for emotional loneliness were opposite the predicted direction. Logistic regression provided validation that outcome effects were caused by riding longer.
conclusionThe findings suggest that THR may be a clinically effective intervention for alleviating PTSD symptoms in military veterans.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.