Feasibility and Acceptability of The Equus Effect: A Small Randomized Controlled Pilot Study of an Equine-facilitated Therapy

马科效应的可行性和可接受性：马科促进疗法的小型随机对照试点研究

• 批准号: 10060753
• 负责人: Steve Martino
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: VA CONNECTICUT HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-12-01 至 2023-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10060753
• 关键词: Address; Adolescent; Adult; Anger; Animals; Anxiety; Attention; Back; Behavior; Behavioral; Caring; Child; Clinical; Communities; Complement; Complementary Health; Cues; Data; Diagnostic; Ear; Eating Disorders; Education; Elements; Emotional; Emotions; Enrollment; Ensure; Equus caballus; Feasibility Studies; Feedback; Goals; Health; Health Promotion; Healthcare; Healthcare Systems; Human; Integrative Medicine; Intervention; Investigation; Learning; Life; Measures; Medical; Mental Depression; Mental Health; Mental Health Services; Methodology; Methods; Outcome; Participant; Patient-Centered Care; Patients; Persons; Pilot Projects; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders; Procedures; Provider; Publishing Peer Reviews; Qualitative Methods; Qualitative Research; Randomized; Randomized Controlled Trials; Recommendation; Recovery; Regulation; Reporting; Research; Research Peer Review; School-Age Population; Self Perception; Site; Social Functioning; Social Interaction; Testing; Therapeutic; Treatment Efficacy; Veterans; Veterans Health Administration; acceptability and feasibility; attentional control; base; body language; clinically significant; cohort; efficacy testing; emotion dysregulation; emotion regulation; experience; feasibility testing; functional outcomes; group intervention; improved; improved functioning; innovation; mindfulness; novel; pilot trial; psychosocial rehabilitation; recruit; satisfaction; skills; social deficits; substance use; trial design

The VA Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation's Whole Health initiative promotes the use of complementary and integrative health (CIH) approaches with traditional medical care to help Veterans achieve meaningful life goals and improved functioning. Equine-facilitated therapy (EFT), an animal-assisted form of CIH, is increasingly available to Veterans within the VA. Horses have extreme sensitivity to the emotional states, behaviors, and intentions of their herds and other animals, including humans, and mirror body language and respond to subtle nonverbal cues. As such, horses have the capacity to provide immediate feedback about a people's emotional and behavioral states. This capacity affords people opportunities to become more emotionally self-aware and, with guidance from EFT facilitators, learn how to regulate emotions and become calmer and more patient, attentive, and confident to gain the horses' cooperation. Participants in EFT are encouraged to apply what they have learned from their equine experiences to their relationships with people. Since high quality social functioning depends on effective regulation of one's emotions, EFT offers a novel way in which to improve the social functioning of Veterans with mental health concerns. VAs are increasingly embracing EFT as a CIH. However, carefully conducted, scientifically valid research about EFT has not been conducted. Existing peer-reviewed research about EFT for mental health is very limited, of poor methodological quality, and not focused on adults. None of it targets social functioning as a main outcome. This small randomized controlled pilot test proposes to examine an innovative EFT called The Equus Effect (TEE) as a complement to Veterans' existing VA mental health services to improve social functioning. TEE aims to improve Veterans' social functioning by developing their emotion regulation and interpersonal skills through therapeutic interactions with horses. This study will evaluate 1) the feasibility of study procedures, assessments, and outcomes, 2) the fidelity of experimental and control interventions, and 3) the acceptability of the interventions to Veterans and their mental health clinicians using mixed quantitative-qualitative methods. The study has the potential to lend initial credibility to the therapeutic claims of this increasingly popular CIH. Should data indicate that TEE and methods to study its effects are feasible and acceptable, it will set the stage for a RR&D IIR proposal to test the efficacy of TEE in a multi-site randomized controlled trial.

弗吉尼亚州以患者为中心的护理和文化转型的整个健康计划促进了 使用传统医疗服务的补充和综合健康（CIH）方法来帮助退伍军人 实现有意义的生活目标并改善功能。马辅助治疗（EFT），一种动物辅助 CIH的形式越来越多地可供VA内的退伍军人使用。马对 牛群和其他动物（包括人类）的情感状态，行为和意图 肢体语言并应对微妙的非语言提示。因此，马有能力立即提供 关于人民的情感和行为状态的反馈。这种能力为人们提供了机会 在情感上变得更加自我意识，并在EFT促进者的指导下学习如何调节情绪 并变得更加平静，更加耐心，专心，并有信心获得马匹的合作。参与者 鼓励EFT运用他们从马的经验中学到的知识 人们。由于高质量的社交功能取决于对情绪的有效调节，因此EFT提供了 通过心理健康问题改善退伍军人社会功能的新颖方式。 Vas是 越来越多地将EFT作为CIH。但是，精心进行了有关EFT的科学有效研究 尚未进行。现有的有关心理健康EFT的同行评审研究非常有限，很差 方法论质量，而不是专注于成年人。它都没有针对社会功能作为主要结果。 这个小型随机控制的飞行员测试建议检查一种创新的EFT，称为Equus效应 （TEE）作为对退伍军人现有的VA心理健康服务的补充，以改善社会功能。球座 旨在通过发展情绪调节和人际交往能力来改善退伍军人的社会功能 通过与马的治疗相互作用。这项研究将评估1）研究程序的可行性， 评估和结果，2）实验和控制干预的保真度，以及3）可接受性 使用混合定量质量质量方法对退伍军人及其心理健康临床医生的干预措施。 这项研究有可能对这一日益流行的CIH的治疗主张提高最初的信誉。 如果数据表明TEE和研究其效果的方法是可行且可接受的，则将设定舞台 对于RR＆D IIR提案，在多站点随机对照试验中测试TEE的功效。