Assessing mechanisms of anxiety reduction in animal-assisted interventions for adolescents with social anxiety

评估动物辅助干预对患有社交焦虑的青少年的焦虑减轻机制

• 批准号: 9322678
• 负责人: Megan Kiely Mueller
• 金额: $ 7.94万
• 依托单位: TUFTS UNIVERSITY BOSTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-05-03 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9322678
• 关键词: Address; Adolescence; Adolescent; Affective; Age; Animals; Anti-Anxiety Agents; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Attenuated; Behavioral; Canis familiaris; Cardiovascular system; Categories; Child; Clinical; Clinical Psychology; Code; Conduct Disorder; Data; Development; Diagnosis; Diagnostic; Enrollment; Ensure; Evaluation; Experimental Designs; Frequencies; Fright; Generalized Anxiety Disorder; Goals; Heart Rate; High Prevalence; Human; Individual; Intervention; Knowledge; Laboratories; Link; Mathematics; Measures; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Methodology; Methods; Mood Disorders; Outcome; Participant; Patient Self-Report; Performance; Physiological; Physiology; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders; Prevalence; Process; Psyche structure; Randomized; Reporting; Research; Research Personnel; Risk; Sampling; Science; Social Anxiety Disorder; Social Behavior; Social Development; Social Interaction; Stress; Substance abuse problem; Techniques; Testing; Therapeutic; Training; Translating; United States; Universities; Videotape; Work; affective disturbance; animal efficacy; anxiety reduction; base; critical period; design; developmental psychology; experience; experimental study; innovation; novel; response; social; social anxiety; social stress; stressor; success; therapy design; tool; young adult

Project Summary Adolescence and young adulthood is a critical period for the development of social anxiety, which is often linked to other mental health challenges such as depression, mood disorders, and substance abuse. Initial evidence suggests that interacting with animals can reduce stress and anxiety, but no research has tested whether this benefit extends to adolescents at risk for social anxiety disorder. Additionally, researchers and clinicians do not understand what mechanism is responsible for anxiety reduction in animal-assisted interventions (AAIs). Therefore, the objectives of this study are to explore the specific mechanisms by which interacting with a therapy dog reduces anxiety, and to test whether such an interaction reduces anxiety in adolescents with varying levels of social anxiety. The specific aims of this project are to (1) test the mechanisms by which AAIs reduce anxiety, and (2) determine if the anxiolytic effect of social and physical interaction is moderated by level of pre-existing social anxiety. To achieve these aims, 75 adolescents (age 13-17) will undergo a well-validated laboratory-based social evaluative stressor, the Trier Social Stress Task for Children, and be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) no interaction with a dog (control condition), 2) social interaction only (no physical interaction) with a therapy dog; or 3) social interaction plus physical interaction with a therapy dog. Using a multivariate approach, three levels of outcome data will be collected: a) self- reported experience (anxiety), b) autonomic physiology (heart rate), and c) behavioral performance (error rates on mental math task). In addition, the interactions will be videotaped and behavioral coding will be used to explore the specific social behaviors between the participant and the dog that may predict anxiety reduction (such as frequency or type of social referencing or physical contact). The proposed study represents exploration into a novel method of expanding knowledge about how animal-assisted interventions can be a potentially effective strategy for anxiety reduction for adolescents with social anxiety. This work represents a critical step in translating a hypothesized effect into a new treatment option for those with social anxiety. Because anxiety is an affective disturbance that is a prevalent component of many mental health diagnoses, the findings of this study will have implications for other diagnostic categories (e.g., generalized anxiety disorder, depression, post- traumatic stress disorder). This study will also lay the groundwork for pursuing programmatic future research to explore the duration and breadth of the therapeutic benefits of AAIs.

项目摘要 青春期和青年期是社交焦虑发展的关键时期，这通常与以下因素有关： 其他心理健康挑战，如抑郁症、情绪障碍和药物滥用。初步证据显示， 与动物互动可以减少压力和焦虑，但没有研究测试这种好处是否延伸到 有社交焦虑障碍风险的青少年。此外，研究人员和临床医生还不了解 在动物辅助干预（AAI）中负责减少焦虑。因此，本研究的目的是 探索与治疗犬互动减少焦虑的具体机制，并测试这种治疗犬是否能减少焦虑。 互动可以减少具有不同社交焦虑水平的青少年的焦虑。 本项目的具体目标是（1）测试AAI减少焦虑的机制，以及（2）确定是否 社交和身体互动的抗焦虑效果受预先存在的社交焦虑水平的调节。实现 为了达到这些目标，75名青少年（13-17岁）将接受一个经过充分验证的基于实验室的社会评价压力源，特里尔 儿童社会压力任务，并被随机分配到三个条件之一：1）没有互动与狗（控制 条件），2）仅与治疗犬进行社交互动（无身体互动）;或3）社交互动加身体互动 与治疗犬的互动使用多变量方法，将收集三个水平的结局数据：a）自我- 报告的经验（焦虑），B）自主生理学（心率），和c）行为表现（心理错误率 数学任务）。此外，互动将被录像，行为编码将被用来探索具体的 参与者和狗之间的社交行为可以预测焦虑的减少（例如频率或类型）。 社会参考或身体接触）。 这项拟议的研究代表了对一种新方法的探索，该方法可以扩展有关动物辅助 干预可能是一个潜在的有效策略，减少焦虑的青少年与社会焦虑。这项工作 这是将假设效果转化为社交焦虑症患者新治疗选择的关键一步。 因为焦虑是一种情感障碍，是许多精神健康诊断的普遍组成部分， 该研究将对其它诊断类别具有启示（例如，广泛性焦虑症，抑郁症，产后 创伤应激障碍）。本研究也将为未来的研究打下基础， AAI治疗获益的持续时间和广度。