Evidence map›Paper›PMID 37273273›Full record

ArticleJournal of pain research2023

Animal-Assisted Psychotherapy for Pediatric Chronic Pain: Case Series of an Open Pilot Study to Test Initial Feasibility and Potential Efficacy.

Cosima Locher, Milena Petignat, Cora Wagner, Karin Hediger, Binia Roth, Jens Gaab, Helen Koechlin

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readCase Reports
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of pain research, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04171336 (Animal-assisted Group Therapy for Children and Adolescents Suffering From Chronic Primary Pain), which is not on this map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
1.7field-weighted citation impact, top 15% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT04171336 nacompletednot on this map

Animal-assisted Group Therapy for Children and Adolescents Suffering From Chronic Primary Pain

TypeinterventionalSponsorUniversity Hospital, Basel, SwitzerlandRan2020 to 2021Enrolled3ConditionsChronic PainArmsAnimal-assisted therapy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed, 3 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.

Cosima LocherDepartment of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-9660-0590
Milena PetignatDivision of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Cora WagnerDivision of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Karin HedigerDivision of Clinical Psychology and Animal-Assisted Interventions, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Binia RothInterdisciplinary Pain Consultation, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry of Basel-Landschaft, Binningen, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0002-1448-3539
Jens GaabDivision of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
Helen KoechlinDepartment of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.ORCID 0000-0001-6680-8027
University of Basel · CHBoston Children's Hospital · USSwiss Tropical and Public Health Institute · CHUniversity of Zurich · CH

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: Chronic pain is a common complaint in children and adolescents, placing an enormous burden on individuals, their families, and the healthcare system. New innovative approaches for the treatment of pediatric chronic pain (PCP) are clearly warranted, as drop-out rates in intervention studies are high and it can be difficult to engage patients with PCP in therapy. Here, animal-assisted interventions (AAIs) might be promising, since there is preliminary evidence for the approach in adults with chronic pain, and AAIs are generally known to foster the therapeutic motivation of patients. To date, however, AAIs have not been examined in pediatric chronic pain. Methods: The aim of this open pilot study was to examine the initial feasibility of recruitment and potential efficacy of an animal-assisted group psychotherapy (including horses, rabbits, chickens, goats, and a dog), providing case reports of three children with chronic pain. We applied a mixed-methods approach, including the conductance of semi-structured interviews and assessment of quantitative pre-post data with a focus on pain severity, avoidance behavior, pain acceptance, and ability to defocus from the pain. Results: The three participating girls (age: 9-12 years) reported chronic pain in the head and abdomen. The process of recruitment turned out to be challenging. All three children reported reduced pain-related disability and pain-related distress, as well as an increased ability to accept pain and to defocus from the pain. The qualitative data revealed that patients and their parents had a positive attitude towards AAIs. Conclusion: Our initial open pilot study is the first to investigate AAIs in the context of pediatric chronic pain. Notably, we had difficulties in the recruitment procedure, mostly due to the Covid-19 situation. Based on three case reports, we found some first indication that AAI approaches might be associated with symptom changes. Future randomized-control studies with larger sample sizes are clearly warranted. Clinicaltrialsgov Identifier: NCT04171336.

Indexed as

animal-assisted psychotherapychildren and adolescentschronic paingroup-based

Identifiers

PMID37273273
PMCPMC10237188
OpenAlexW4378627772

What OpenQuestion holds

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LicenceCC BY-NC
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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.