SynthesisThe British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science2026
Dog-assisted interventions for children and adults with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions: systematic review.
Synthesis in The British journal of psychiatry : the journal of mental science, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed.
- Preparing Therapy Dogs for Animal-Assisted Services: Governance, Welfare-Centred Preparation, and a Lifecycle Research Agenda Across Selected European and United States Frameworks.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Review
- Guidance for protocol content and reporting of dog-assisted interventions in randomised controlled trials: explanation and elaboration of the SPIRIT 2025 and CONSORT 2025 extensions.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Reporting of dog-assisted intervention trials: extension of the SPIRIT 2025 and CONSORT 2025 statement.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- Dogs' Behavioural Responses to Dog-Assisted Interventions: A Field Study.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
- Dog-assisted interventions to support health and wellbeing: a national survey of current practice in England.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDog-assisted interventions (DAIs) to improve health-related outcomes for people with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions are becoming increasingly popular. However, DAIs are not based on robust scientific evidence.
aimsTo determine the effectiveness of DAIs for children and adults with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, assess how well randomised controlled trials (RCTs) are reported, and examine the use of terminology to classify DAIs.
methodsA systematic search was conducted in Embase, PsycINFO, PubMed, CINAHL, Web of Science and the Cochrane Library. RCTs were grouped by commonly reported outcomes and described narratively with forest plots reporting standardised mean differences and 95% confidence intervals without a pooled estimate. The quality of reporting of RCTs and DAIs was evaluated by assessing adherence to CONSORT and the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) guidelines. Suitability of use of terminology was assessed by mapping terms to the intervention content described.
resultsThirty-three papers were included, reporting 29 RCTs (with five assessed as overall high quality); a positive impact of DAIs was found by 57% (8/14) for social skills and/or behaviour, 50% (5/10) for symptom frequency and/or severity, 43% (6/14) for depression and 33% (2/6) for agitation. The mean proportion of adherence to the CONSORT statement was 48.6%. The TIDieR checklist also indicated considerable variability in intervention reporting. Most DAIs were assessed as having clear alignment for terminology, but improvement in reporting information is still required.
conclusionsDAIs may show promise for improving mental health and behavioural outcomes for those with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, particularly for conditions requiring social skill support. However, the quality of reporting requires improvement.
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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.