Objectives: The aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of animal-assisted intervention (AAI), a complementary support to traditional therapies focused on the interaction between animals and human beings, in improving psychological trait, anxiety and pain in a cohort of systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients.
Methods: 42 SSc patients, undergoing iloprost intravenous infusion, were divided in three groups: 1) 14 patients submitted to 20 AAI sessions; 2) 14 patients engaged in alternative social activity (control group 1 - C1); and 3) 14 patients without any alternative activity (control group 2 - C2). All patients underwent Visual Analog Scale (VAS), the State-anxiety (STAI-S) and emotional faces at the beginning (s0) and at the end (s1) of each single session, while General Anxiety State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-T), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised (EPQ-R), the Social Phobia Scale (SPS), the Toronto Alexythymia Scale (TAS-20), the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) were administered at baseline (t0) and at the end of the project (t1).
Results: AAI group showed a significant decrease of the anxiety state level in respect to the two control groups (p<0.001). VAS scale resulted lower both in AAI (p < 0.001) and C1 group (p<0.01). Moreover, STAI-T and TAS scores were significantly reduced in AAI group (p<0.001). TCQ scale showed that patients treated with AAI, compared to control group C2, had greater capacity to avoid unpleasant and unwanted thoughts (p<0.05). In AAI group, the EPQ-R test revealed an enhancement of extroversion trait compared to both control groups (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Our data show that AAI significantly reduces pain perception, anxiety, neuroticism and ameliorates patients' social interaction, therefore it may be a useful to allow a better compliance to traditional therapies.