Animal-assisted Trauma-focused Therapy for Children and Adolescents
For patients and families
In plain language
An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.
- What is being studied
- The protocol lists: Animal-assisted trauma-focused therapy, Standard trauma-focused therapy.
- Who it may be relevant to
- Registry conditions: Motivation, Alliance, Therapeutic. Basic parameters: 9 years — 17 years · All.
- What needs checking
- Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
- Where it takes place
- Switzerland
- Next step
- Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →
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Official title
Effects of a Psychotherapy Group Program for Children and Adolescents With Post-traumatic Stress Symptoms
Overview
The study aims to investigate how the inclusion of an animal into a trauma-focused group therapy program (TF-CBT) affects therapy motivation of children and adolescents suffering from post-traumatic stress. 80 children and adolescents aged 9 to 17 years are recruited for the study. Participants must have experienced at least one traumatic event leading to post-traumatic stress symptoms. Participants are randomly allocated to one of two groups: animal-assisted trauma-focused therapy (AA TF-CBT) or standard trauma-focused therapy (TF-CBT). Parallel to the groups the parents/guardians of the participating children and adolescents take part in three parent meetings. The results of the study help to gain insights into how the inclusion of animals in trauma-focused psychotherapy can contribute to children and adolescents attending therapy, being more motivated in therapy, and can successfully complete therapy.
Interventions
- Behavioral Animal-assisted trauma-focused therapy
Animal-assisted trauma-focused therapy (AA TF-CBT) is a specific form of trauma treatment, in which one or more animals are integrated into the therapy. AA TF-CBT follows a structured, standardized therapy manual. - Behavioral Standard trauma-focused therapy
Standard trauma-focused therapy (AA TF-CBT) is a standardized trauma therapy following a structured manual.
Primary outcome measures
- Change of Therapy Motivation of children and adolescents from baseline to four weeks after treatment. [Time frame: before treatment (baseline), after 10 weeks of treatment (post-measurement), four weeks after treatment (follow-up)]
Secondary outcome measures (5)
- Change of Therapeutic alliance of children and adolescents from baseline to four weeks after treatment. [Time frame: before treatment (baseline), after ten weeks of treatment (post-measurement), four weeks after treatment (follow-up)]
- Change of PTSD symptoms of children and adolescents from baseline to four weeks after treatment. [Time frame: before treatment (baseline), after ten weeks of treatment (post-measurement), four weeks after treatment (follow-up)]
- Change of Self-efficacy of children and adolescents from baseline to four weeks after treatment. [Time frame: before treatment (baseline), after ten weeks of treatment (post-measurement), four weeks after treatment (follow-up)]
- Change of Quality of Life of children and adolescents from baseline to four weeks after treatment. [Time frame: before treatment (baseline), after ten weeks of treatment (post-measurement), four weeks after treatment (follow-up)]
- Qualitative assessment of participants' perception of the group therapy at follow-up. [Time frame: four weeks after treatment at follow-up]
Eligibility criteria
Inclusion criteria
- Age between 9 and 17 years
- experienced a traumatic event
- remembers at least one traumatic event
- Suffering from posttraumatic stress symptoms (screened via the CATS-2; cut-off ≥ 21; cut-off must be reached by either participant or caregiver)
- Basic knowledge of child and parents in German to be able to understand content of the session and to fill in questionnaires
- Informed consent (given by legal guardian for participants younger than 14 years)
- Positive or neutral attitude towards animals
Exclusion criteria
- Inability to complete questionnaires due to lack of language skills or cognitive impairment
- Diagnosed autism spectrum disorder; Exclusion only if interaction with others and group ability is limited due to autism
- Reported significant impairment or safety issue (e.g., active suicidal ideation, acute psychosis)
- Known abuse of substances used for emotion regulation (e.g. cannabis, alcohol, other hard drugs)
- Fear of domestic animals
- Allergic reactions to domestic animals
- Reported aggressive behavior towards animals in the past
Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.
Healthy volunteers: No
Study design
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Model
- Parallel assignment
- Masking
- Open label
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
Study locations
Switzerland · 2 centers
- University of Basel — Basel
- Psychiatrische Universitätsklinik Zürich — Zurich
Identifiers
NCT: NCT05608551 · 2022-01327