Trial reportPloS one2022
Outcomes of a controlled trial with visiting therapy dog teams on pain in adults in an emergency department.
Trial report in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04727749 (A Study of the Pawsitive Impacts of Therapy Dog Visits With Adult Emergency Department Pain Patients), which is not on this map. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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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.
A Study of the Pawsitive Impacts of Therapy Dog Visits With Adult Emergency Department Pain Patients
Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Therapy Dogs for Anxiety in Children in the Emergency Department: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2025Trial
- Animal-Assisted Therapy for Reducing Anxiety in Vulnerable Clinical Populations: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Article
- Exploring Impacts of Integrating a Rehabilitation Dog into Physiotherapy from the Perspectives of Children with Cerebral Palsy and Their Caregivers.NeuroRehabilitation · 2025Article
- Pawsitive Care: Canine-Assisted Intervention for Anxiety in ICU Patients and Family Members: A Single-Center, Single-Arm Study.Critical care explorations · 2025Article
- Article
- Recognizing Zooeyia to Promote Companion Animal Welfare in Urban Bangladesh.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2023Article
- Role of pets and animal assisted therapy in suicide prevention.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2022Article
- Reactivation of a Hospital-Based Therapy Dog Visitation Program during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
22 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
contextPain is a primary reason individuals attend an Emergency Department (ED), and its management is a concern.
objectivesChange in symptoms and physiologic variables at 3 time points pre-post a ten-minute St. John Ambulance therapy dog team visit compared to no visit in ED patients who experienced pain. DESIGN, SETTING AND
participantsUsing a controlled clinical trial design, pain, anxiety, depression and well-being were measured with the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (revised version) (ESAS-r) 11-point rating scales before, immediately after, and 20 minutes post- therapy dog team visit with Royal University Hospital ED patients participating in the study (n = 97). Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded at the time points. Control data was gathered twice (30 minutes apart) for comparison (n = 101). There were no group differences in age, gender or ethnicity among the control and intervention groups (respectively mean age 59.5/57.2, ethnicity 77.2% Caucasian/87.6%, female 43.6% /39.2%, male 56.4%/60.8%,).
intervention10 minute therapy dog team visit in addition to usual care.
main outcome measuresChange in reported pain from pre and post therapy dog team visit and comparison with a control group.
resultsA two-way ANOVA was conducted to compare group effects. Significant pre- post-intervention differences were noted in pain for the intervention (mean changeint. = -0.9, SD = 2.05, p = .004, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.42, 1.32], ηp2 = 04) but not the control group. Anxiety (mean changeint. = -1.13, SD = 2.80, p = .005, 95% CI = [0.56, 1.64], ηp2 = .04), depression (mean changeint. = -0.72, SD = 1.71, p = .002, 95% CI = [0.39, 1.11], ηp2 = .047), and well-being ratings (mean changeint. = -0.87, SD = 1.84, p < .001, 95% CI = [0.49, 1.25], ηp2 = .07) similarly improved for the intervention group only. There were no pre-post intervention differences in blood pressure or heart rate for either group. Strong responders to the intervention (i.e. >50% reduction) were observed for pain (43%), anxiety (48%), depression (46%), and well-being (41%).
conclusionsClinically significant changes in pain as well as significant changes in anxiety, depression and well-being were observed in the therapy dog intervention compared to control. The findings of this novel study contribute important knowledge towards the potential value of ED therapy dogs to affect patients' experience of pain, and related measures of anxiety, depression and well-being.
trial registrationThis controlled clinical trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, registration number NCT04727749.
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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.