Sammendrag
The use of video records in AAT is based on my PhD thesis titled: Animal-assisted therapy: Effects on persons with psychiatric disorders working with farm animals. The study was designed as a randomized controlled trial, and included 90 adult psychiatric patients, with two-thirds to treatment and one third to control. The intervention period was 12 weeks, and the patients participated in ordinary work with cattle or sheep three hours twice a week. A follow-up study was conducted six months after the end of the intervention to examine if changes in the outcome of the inventories was permanent for a longer period for the treatment group compared with the controls. The treatment group received standard therapy and medication in addition to AAT, while the controls got treatment as usual. Video registrations were carried out once during the first two weeks and once during the last two weeks of the intervention. The patients were told to do ordinary tasks with the animals, and the interaction and work with the animals was recorded by continuous sampling. Video records were made with a Sony DVCAM 3 CCD digital hand held camera in normal speed, zooming in from some distance to avoid disturbing the patients behaviour. Analyses were performed using instantaneous sampling at one minute intervals. The total group showed a significantly higher intensity and exactness in their work with the animals during the second video registration. These differences were particularly manifested among patients with schizophrenia or personality disorders. For the total group we found no significant correlations between effect scores of the video recording parameters and the scores of any of the psychiatric instruments, but among patients with affective disorders increased intensity of work correlated significantly with increased self-efficacy and decreased anxiety. The patients spent most of the relevant time in physical contact with the animals, feeding, cleaning and milking cows.
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