Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Viale C. Pepoli 5, 40123 Bologna, Italy.
J Psychiatr Res. 2013 Jun;47(6):762-73. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2012.12.014. Epub 2013 Jan 29.
The aim of this literature review was to assess the effects of Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) on elderly patients with dementia or various psychiatric disorders.
We conducted a comprehensive literature search using the online PubMed network of the US National Library of Medicine & National Institutes of Health, Embase, PsycINFO, with the purpose of investigating AAI effects on cognitive functions, mood, and behaviour.
A total of 18 articles on dementia and 5 on psychiatric disorders were included in the present review. AAI were found to have positive influences on demented patients by reducing degree of agitation and by improving degree and quality of social interaction. Few studies have assessed the effects of AAI on mood, and even fewer have assessed its consequences on cognitive functions. The results that are available indicate a positive effect on communication and coping ability, but none on cognitive performance. A substitute pet robot yielded encouraging results, but its use requires further investigation. The few studies conducted for elderly patients presenting a variety of psychiatric diagnoses produced controversial findings.
In spite of the encouraging results of AAI, much more research examining the issue of optimal AAI duration, frequency of sessions, and suitable target group is needed.
本文献综述旨在评估动物辅助干预（AAI）对痴呆或各种精神疾病老年患者的影响。
我们使用美国国家医学图书馆和美国国立卫生研究院的在线 PubMed 网络、Embase、PsycINFO 进行了全面的文献检索，旨在调查 AAI 对认知功能、情绪和行为的影响。
本综述共纳入了 18 篇关于痴呆症的文章和 5 篇关于精神疾病的文章。AAI 通过减少激越程度和改善社会互动的程度和质量，对痴呆患者产生了积极的影响。很少有研究评估 AAI 对情绪的影响，甚至更少研究其对认知功能的影响。现有的结果表明对沟通和应对能力有积极影响，但对认知表现没有影响。替代宠物机器人取得了令人鼓舞的结果，但它的使用需要进一步研究。针对患有各种精神疾病的老年患者进行的少数研究得出了相互矛盾的结论。
尽管 AAI 的结果令人鼓舞，但仍需要更多的研究来检查最佳 AAI 持续时间、治疗次数和合适的目标群体的问题。
