An interventional study of Animal-assisted Therapy in Heart Failure, sponsored by University of California, Los Angeles. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 80 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2016-06-03.
Sponsored by University of California, Los Angeles · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
Effects of complementary therapies on heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization, are unknown. Animal-assisted therapy improves physiological and psychosocial variables in healthy and hypertensive subjects.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether a 12-minute hospital visit with a therapy dog improves hemodynamics, lowers neurohormone levels, and decreases state anxiety in patients hospitalized with heart failure.
Context: Effects of complementary therapies on heart failure, a leading cause of hospitalization, are unknown. Animal-assisted therapy improves physiological and psychosocial variables in healthy and hypertensive subjects.
Objectives: To determine whether a 12-minute hospital visit with a therapy dog improves hemodynamics, lowers neurohormone levels, and decreases state anxiety in patients hospitalized with heart failure.
Design, Setting, Participants: A 3-group (volunteer-dog team, volunteer only, and control) randomized repeated-measures experimental design was used in 76 adult patients with advanced heart failure hospitalized between November 2001 and July 2004. Longitudinal analysis was used to model differences among the 3 groups at 3 time points.
Interventions: One group received a 12-minute visit from a volunteer with a therapy dog, another group received a 12-minute visit from a volunteer, and the control group received usual care, at rest. Data were collected at baseline, 8 minutes after the intervention started, and 16 minutes (4 minutes after intervention ended).
Main Outcome Measures: Blood pressure, heart rate, pulmonary artery pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, right atrial pressure, cardiac index, systemic vascular resistance, plasma levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine, and state anxiety.
Results: Compared with the control group, patients visited by a volunteer-dog team showed significantly greater decreases in pulmonary artery pressure during (5.34, P = .003) and after (5.78, P = .001) the intervention, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure during (3.09, P = .02) and after (4.31, P = .002) the intervention, and epinephrine (17.54, P = .04) and norepinephrine (240.14, P = .02) levels during the intervention. After the intervention, patients visited by the volunteer-dog team showed the greatest decrease in state anxiety over patients visited by a volunteer only (6.65, P = .003) and the control group (9.13, P \< .0001).
Conclusions: Animal-assisted therapy improves cardiopulmonary pressures, neurohormone levels, and anxiety in patients hospitalized with heart failure.
5,803 studies on the registry are indexed under Heart Failure; 1,222 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 76 is close to the median of 72 across 3,790 interventional studies indexed under Heart Failure.
Browse Heart Failure studies →University of California, Los Angeles is the lead sponsor of 1,167 studies on the registry; 192 are open to participants now.
Of its 94 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 69 (73%) have results posted.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Blood pressure
heart rate
pulmonary artery pressure
pulmonary capillary wedge pressure
right atrial pressure
cardiac index
systemic vascular resistance
plasma levels of epinephrine
plasma levels of norepinephrine
state anxiety
The record gives a start of Nov 2001 and a completion of Jul 2004. It does not say whether these dates are actual or estimated.
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This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2016. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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