Nervous System Diseases

Heart and Blood Diseases

All Conditions

Behaviors and Mental Disorders

Symptoms and General Pathology

Stroke

Problem Behavior

Epilepsy

Seizures

Feeding and Eating Disorders

Neurologic Manifestations

Behavioral Symptoms

Brain Diseases

Central Nervous System Diseases

Mental Disorders

Psychotic Disorders

Standard OT Therapy with Animal Assisted Therapy at Visit 1 and Not at Visit 2

Standard OT Therapy with Animal Assisted Therapy at Visit 2 and not Visit 1

There will be a therapy dog and dog trainer present working with the patient for the AAT arm.

Animal Assisted Therapy

Nicole Iammatteo, OT

The primary purpose for this study is to determine if children who receive Occupational Therapy while they are an inpatient in the hospital will be more motivated to participate in therapy as well as increase the amount of time they will work during that particular session when a therapy dog is present during their sessions. The investigators will also be collecting data regarding a child's heart rate and blood pressure prior to the session starting and ending to determine if having a therapy dog present also helps relax a child.

The primary objective of this study is to evaluate if a patient in the pediatric acute care setting receiving Occupational Therapy (OT) services in adjunct with animal assisted therapy (AAT) are more motivated to actively participate in the therapy session for a longer period of time.

Methods:

Thirty inpatients will be recruited to participate in this study. This study will utilize a randomized crossover study design where the patients act as their own control. The treatment period for hospitalized patients will include an on off pattern of incorporating AAT into their OT session. Patients' participation of therapy will be assessed with a participation scale (see Figure 2) and the OT session time. Patients will be evaluated for OT and the therapist will determine goals based on functional status and needs of the particular patient. Goals will be determined by providing a functional evaluation based upon Occupational Therapists clinical observation, developmental standards and current functional level of the patient.

Patients who are potential candidates for this study will be hospitalized at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota on the St. Paul campus. All inpatients stated to have decreased functional skills that have been referred by a physician to OT will be invited to participate this study.

Patients have a difficult time participating in various therapies due to emotional stress, anxiety, and feeling uncomfortable with the hospital environment. Limited studies have demonstrated the value of AAT used in conjunction with OT for children, regardless of diagnosis within the hospital setting. Results of this study can justify the use of this valuable therapy not only for the selected population, but also for other disciplines such as physical and speech therapy.

Animal Assisted Therapy in a Pediatric Setting

The Effectiveness of Animal Assisted Therapy for Children Hospitalized in a Pediatric Setting

The patients response to therapy can be measures using the following behavior domains (cognition, fine motor, activities and daily living, feeding skills, active range of motion/activities, and functional Transfers).

Heart rate and blood pressure will be measured to assess if AAT minimizes stress and anxiety.

Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota

Cancer Pain

Pain

For the comparison condition, subjects will be asked to choose one of four topics that will be determined thatday with a recreational therapist for 20 minutes.

The treatment condition will consist of a 20-minute visit by a therapy dog and its owner. Therapy dogowners will be instructed to limit conversation with the patient to topics of the therapy dog, thepatients pets, and pets in general.

Every subject will be exposed to both treatment and comparison conditions.

Ann M Cohen Berger, M.D.

This study will examine how animal-assisted therapy (AAT) affects aspects of pain. It will explore the possible benefits of the National Institutes of Health's AAT program on distress in cancer patients receiving pain and palliative care at the NIH Clinical Center. A number of studies on the benefits of patients interacting with companion animals have shown a positive effect of both pet ownership and AAT for patients with chronic illness. However, few such experimental studies have been conducted with cancer patients.

Patients 18 years of age and older who have been diagnosed with cancer and have been referred for consult with NIH's pain and palliative care team and recreation therapy may be eligible for this study.

Participants have two study sessions, each lasting about 20 minutes on two different days. In one session, they visit with an animal assistant therapy dog and its handler. In the other session they engage in a conversation that the patient identifies as non-stressful. Patients are asked to fill out four forms before and after each session with questions and statements about their pain, attitude towards pets, symptoms they might be having, and demographic information, such as age, sex, marital status, and so forth. On four separate occasions, 1 teaspoon of blood is drawn and a swab of saliva is collected from the mouth up to an hour after the session.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the NIH Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) program on distress in oncology patients treated for pain. More than simply a physiologic or sensory response, pain is multidimensional. Pain management programs are best developed by selecting interventions based on the individual's pain experience. Strategies with several courses of action that complement each other may be selected to work together in a synergistic response to maximize pain relief. The goal of palliative care is to achieve the highest possible quality of life for patients, and indirectly, their families, through symptom control and attention to the whole patient: addressing physical, psychosocial, and emotional dimensions.

Limited research with persons receiving palliative care for cancer indicates that a variety of complementary interventions can mitigate psychological distress and improve quality of life (Ernst, 2001). A growing body of literature documenting positive effects of pet ownership and animal-assisted therapy (AAT) on patients with chronic illnesses warrants consideration of this type of intervention among the complementary approaches that may benefit terminally ill cancer patients.

The purpose of the proposed preliminary study is to explore the possible benefits of the existing NIH AAT program on psychological and physiological distress in cancer patients referred for pain and palliative care consults at the NIH Clinical Center. The primary outcome variable of interest is distress. Secondary outcomes of interest are pain intensity, pain unpleasantness, and use of pain medications. Attitudes towards pets is considered a moderating variable and will also be assessed.

A pre-post, within-subjects design will be used. Patients will be assigned in randomized block order to a comparison and treatment condition, administered at the same time of day on two consecutive days. The treatment condition is 20 minutes of AAT and the comparison condition is a 20-minute neutral discussion with a Recreational Therapist. All participants will be adult oncology patients consulted to the pain and palliative care service, and recreation therapy.

Psychological data will be collected pre and post session by survey instruments; medication use will be collected every 24 hours; physiological stress will be measured by salivary cortisol and, for patients with established indwelling catheters only, serum beta-endorphin levels.

Repeated measures ANOVA will be used to assess the effect of the two conditions (treatment vs. comparison) on each of the dependent variables. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize baseline demographics.

Effects of Pet Therapy on Pain in Cancer Patients

The Effect of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Distress in Oncology Patients Being Treated for Pain

Psychological and physiological distress is the primary outcome of interest in this study. This variable will be measured by two self report instruments, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale and the Fear Visual Analog Scale, and two physiological assessments, salivary cortisol and serum beta endorphin. Several biochemical assays have been used as surrogate markers for stress. In this study, we propose to investigate two of these assays, serum beta-endorphin and salivary cortisol, in conjunction with other tools to assess levels of stress prior to, during and subsequent to treatment with animal-assisted therapy.

National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Neoplasms

Facies

Brain Neoplasms

Central Nervous System Neoplasms

Nervous System Neoplasms

Quality of Life

Patients will be asked to complete the standardized QLQ-C30/BN20 questionnaires. Following completion of the questionnaires, a trained pet therapy dog will be brought to the patients for approximately 10 minutes. After approximately 10 minutes, the dog will be removed and the patients will be asked to re-complete the standardized QLQ-C30/BN20 questionnaires. Patients will be photographed and videographed during this time.

Finally, patients will be asked to talk about how their perspectives on life have changed with their diagnosis. These responses will be captured for use in the art exhibit created from images collected during the study.

Pet Therapy

Mahua Dey, MD

Stefan Petranek

The goal of this study is to explore whether facial expression changes in visual portraits correlate with Quality of Life (QOL) questionnaire responses before and after pet therapy sessions and to compare scores of QOL questionnaires before and after pet therapy.

Through this pilot study, the investigators propose to create new intersections between video art and clinical care by photographing and videotaping patients with brain tumors before, during and after pet therapy sessions. This exploratory scholarship has two equally compelling goals. First, the artistic component of the project aims to create compelling slow motion video portraits of patients' willing to share their experiences of what it is like to confront such a grave illness. The goal is to put a human face on disease and share the endurance of the human spirit through art. Second, the scientific component will assess the potential of using facial video portraits as a novel and innovative way to measure Quality of Life (QOL) in lieu of questionnaires in brain tumor patients. In addition, the project will evaluate the effects of pet therapy on the QOL of these patients.

Bridging the Gap: Using Video Art to Document the Human Face of Disease & Predict Quality of Life Assessments in Brain Tumor Patients

Will look to see if there is a correlation between facial expression changes in visual portraits with QOL questionnaire responses before and after pet therapy sessions

Will compare QOL questionnaire scores from before and after pet therapy sessions to see if there is a change after the pet therapy.

Study title	NCT ID	Conditions	Interventions	Eligibility	Organization
Animal Assisted Therapy in a Pediatric Setting	NCT01441674	Developmental D... Global Developm... Stroke Cancers Seizures Disord... Behavior Proble... Feeding Disorde... Developmental D...	Animal Assisted...	-	Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota
Effects of Pet Therapy on Pain in Cancer Patients	NCT00431639	Cancer	Animal Assisted...	18 Years - 110 Years	National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
Bridging the Gap: Using Video Art to Document the Human Face of Disease & Predict Quality of Life Assessments in Brain Tumor Patients	NCT02890940	Brain Tumors Quality of Life Animal Assisted...	Pet Therapy	18 Years -	Indiana University
Bridging the Gap: Using Video Art to Document the Human Face of Disease & Predict Quality of Life Assessments in Brain Tumor Patients	NCT02890940	Brain Tumors Quality of Life Animal Assisted...	Pet Therapy	18 Years -	Indiana University
Bridging the Gap: Using Video Art to Document the Human Face of Disease & Predict Quality of Life Assessments in Brain Tumor Patients	NCT02890940	Brain Tumors Quality of Life Animal Assisted...	Pet Therapy	18 Years -	Indiana University
Effects of Pet Therapy on Pain in Cancer Patients	NCT00431639	Cancer	Animal Assisted...	18 Years - 110 Years	National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
Effects of Pet Therapy on Pain in Cancer Patients	NCT00431639	Cancer	Animal Assisted...	18 Years - 110 Years	National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)

Spots Global Cancer Trial Database for animal assisted therapy