Seeger Linnea, Kübler Andrea, Hilger Kirsten
Department of Psychology I, Würzburg University, Würzburg, Germany.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2025 Jun;64(2):166-187. doi: 10.1111/bjc.12492. Epub 2024 Aug 5.
Animal-assisted psychotherapy is an emerging field with great potential and growing popularity. However, empirical research on its effectiveness is insufficient, and consistent evidence about patients' commitment is missing. The present meta-analysis addresses this gap by systematically comparing drop-out rates in animal-assisted psychotherapy and by relating the resulting across study drop-out rate to across study drop-out rates reported in meta-analyses on conventional psychotherapy.
Fifty-seven studies published until August 2022 were identified as eligible for meta-analytic comparison, that is, they conducted animal-assisted psychotherapy on at least one group of psychiatric patients and reported drop-out rates. Potential moderating influences of the type of animal and patients' disorder were considered, as well as multiple other demographic and study design variables.
The across study drop-out rate in animal-assisted psychotherapy was 11.2%. This was significantly lower than the across meta-analyses drop-out rate of conventional psychotherapy (d = -.45, p = .0005). Although effects of moderator variables could not be evaluated statistically due to too small and heterogeneous data sets, descriptive results suggest influences of the type of animal and patient disorder. However, study quality ratings identified serious shortcomings regarding proper research design, most critically concerning the report of effect size measures, the use of standardized intervention plans and Open Science practices.
Drop-out constitutes a major problem of psychotherapeutic research and practice. By proposing that the inclusion of an animal in the psychotherapeutic setting can enhance patients' commitment and by outlining challenges and opportunity of animal-assisted psychotherapy, this meta-analysis offers a starting point for future research in this evolving field.
动物辅助心理治疗是一个具有巨大潜力且日益受到欢迎的新兴领域。然而，关于其有效性的实证研究不足，且缺乏关于患者参与度的一致证据。本荟萃分析通过系统比较动物辅助心理治疗中的退出率，并将研究得出的总体退出率与传统心理治疗荟萃分析中报告的总体退出率相关联，来填补这一空白。
截至2022年8月发表的57项研究被确定为符合荟萃分析比较的条件，即它们对至少一组精神科患者进行了动物辅助心理治疗并报告了退出率。考虑了动物类型和患者疾病的潜在调节影响，以及多个其他人口统计学和研究设计变量。
动物辅助心理治疗的总体退出率为11.2%。这显著低于传统心理治疗的荟萃分析总体退出率（d = -0.45，p = 0.0005）。尽管由于数据集过小且异质性大，无法对调节变量的影响进行统计学评估，但描述性结果表明动物类型和患者疾病存在影响。然而，研究质量评级发现了关于适当研究设计的严重缺陷，最关键的是效应量测量的报告、标准化干预计划的使用和开放科学实践方面。
退出是心理治疗研究和实践中的一个主要问题。通过提出在心理治疗环境中引入动物可以提高患者的参与度，并概述动物辅助心理治疗的挑战和机遇，本荟萃分析为这个不断发展的领域的未来研究提供了一个起点。
