IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i7p683-d102477.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Efficacy of Dog Assisted Therapy in Detained Drug Users: A Pilot Study in an Italian Attenuated Custody Institute

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Contalbrigo

    (Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro (Padua), Italy)

  • Marta De Santis

    (Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro (Padua), Italy)

  • Marica Toson

    (Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro (Padua), Italy)

  • Maria Montanaro

    (Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro (Padua), Italy)

  • Luca Farina

    (Italian National Reference Centre for Animal Assisted Interventions, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie, Viale Dell’Universita 10, 35020 Legnaro (Padua), Italy)

  • Aldo Costa

    (Veterinary Service, Local Health Unit n. 6-Euganea, Via Fra’ Paolo Sarpi 76, 35100 Padua, Italy)

  • Felice Alfonso Nava

    (Prison Healthcare Service, Local Health Unit n. 6-Euganea, Via Temanza 2, 35100 Padua, Italy)

Abstract

Drug addiction is a major care and safety challenge in prison context. Nowadays, rehabilitation and specific therapeutic programs are suggested to improve health and well-being of inmates during their detention time and to reduce substance abuse relapse after release from prison. Among these programs, several studies reported the benefits for inmates coming from animal assisted interventions. In this pilot controlled study, we investigated the efficacy of a dog assisted therapy program addressed to 22 drug addicted male inmates housed in an attenuated custody institute in Italy. The study lasted six months, the treated group (12 inmates) was involved once a week for one hour in 20 dog assisted therapy sessions, whereas the control group (10 inmates) followed the standard rehabilitation program. One week before the beginning and one week after the end of the sessions, all inmates involved were submitted to symptom checklist-90-revised and Kennedy axis V. Inmates involved in the dog assisted therapy sessions significantly improved their social skills, reducing craving, anxiety and depression symptoms compared to the control group. Despite the limitation due to the small number of inmates enrolled and to the absence of follow up, we found these results encouraging to the use of dog assisted therapy as co-therapy in drug addicted inmates rehabilitation programs, and we claim the need of more extensive study on this subject.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Contalbrigo & Marta De Santis & Marica Toson & Maria Montanaro & Luca Farina & Aldo Costa & Felice Alfonso Nava, 2017. "The Efficacy of Dog Assisted Therapy in Detained Drug Users: A Pilot Study in an Italian Attenuated Custody Institute," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:683-:d:102477
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/683/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/7/683/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shadish, William R. & Clark, M. H. & Steiner, Peter M., 2008. "Can Nonrandomized Experiments Yield Accurate Answers? A Randomized Experiment Comparing Random and Nonrandom Assignments," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 103(484), pages 1334-1344.
    2. Alexandra Galassi & Elias Mpofu & James Athanasou, 2015. "Therapeutic Community Treatment of an Inmate Population with Substance Use Disorders: Post-Release Trends in Re-Arrest, Re-Incarceration, and Drug Misuse Relapse," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-14, June.
    3. Tangney, June P. & Folk, Johanna B. & Graham, David M. & Stuewig, Jeffrey B. & Blalock, Daniel V. & Salatino, Andrew & Blasko, Brandy L. & Moore, Kelly E., 2016. "Changes in inmates' substance use and dependence from pre-incarceration to one year post-release," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 228-238.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miguel Monfort & Ana Benito & Gonzalo Haro & Alejandro Fuertes-Saiz & Monserrat Cañabate & Abel Baquero, 2022. "The Efficacy of Animal-Assisted Therapy in Patients with Dual Diagnosis: Schizophrenia and Addiction," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-11, May.
    2. Karin Hediger & Rahel Marti & Vivien Urfer & Armin Schenk & Verena Gutwein & Christine Dörr, 2022. "Effects of a Dog-Assisted Social- and Emotional-Competence Training for Prisoners: A Controlled Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Heissel, Jennifer, 2016. "The relative benefits of live versus online delivery: Evidence from virtual algebra I in North Carolina," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 99-115.
    2. Katherine Baicker & Theodore Svoronos, 2019. "Testing the Validity of the Single Interrupted Time Series Design," NBER Working Papers 26080, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Deborah Peikes & Grace Anglin & Erin Fries Taylor & Stacy Dale & Ann O'Malley & Arkadipta Ghosh & Kaylyn Swankoski & Lara Converse & Rosalind Keith & Mariel Finucane & Jesse Crosson & Anne Mutti & Tho, "undated". "Evaluation of the Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative: Third Annual Report," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 70714de1cb3d4620a5957f68d, Mathematica Policy Research.
    4. Nikolova, Milena & Graham, Carol, 2015. "In transit: The well-being of migrants from transition and post-transition countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 164-186.
    5. Shinzo Yatsugi & Koji Fujita & Saori Kashima & Akira Eboshida, 2016. "Drug Dependence Treatment Awareness among Japanese Female Stimulant Drug Offenders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-11, November.
    6. Colin Cannonier, 2009. "State Abstinence Education Programs and Teen Fertility in the U.S," Departmental Working Papers 2009-14, Department of Economics, Louisiana State University.
    7. Terri J. Sabol & Robert C. Pianta, 2014. "Do Standard Measures of Preschool Quality Used in Statewide Policy Predict School Readiness?," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 9(2), pages 116-164, March.
    8. Kari Lock Morgan & Donald B. Rubin, 2015. "Rerandomization to Balance Tiers of Covariates," Journal of the American Statistical Association, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 110(512), pages 1412-1421, December.
    9. Ethan J. Raker, 2020. "Natural Hazards, Disasters, and Demographic Change: The Case of Severe Tornadoes in the United States, 1980–2010," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 57(2), pages 653-674, April.
    10. Xiaokang Luo & Tirthankar Dasgupta & Minge Xie & Regina Y. Liu, 2021. "Leveraging the Fisher randomization test using confidence distributions: Inference, combination and fusion learning," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 83(4), pages 777-797, September.
    11. Zhexiao Lin & Peng Ding & Fang Han, 2023. "Estimation Based on Nearest Neighbor Matching: From Density Ratio to Average Treatment Effect," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 91(6), pages 2187-2217, November.
    12. Nicholas Voorhees & Justin C. Ortagus & Erica Marti, 2023. "Give It a Swirl? An Examination of the Influence of 4-Year Students Taking Entry-Level Math Courses at the Local Community College," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 64(1), pages 147-173, February.
    13. Kenneth Fortson & Natalya Verbitsky-Savitz & Emma Kopa & Philip Gleason, 2012. "Using an Experimental Evaluation of Charter Schools to Test Whether Nonexperimental Comparison Group Methods Can Replicate Experimental Impact Estimates," Mathematica Policy Research Reports 27f871b5b7b94f3a80278a593, Mathematica Policy Research.
    14. Rezaei, Ehsan Eyshi & Gaiser, Thomas, 2017. "Change in crop management strategies could double the maize yield in Africa," Discussion Papers 260154, University of Bonn, Center for Development Research (ZEF).
    15. Jean Stockard, 2013. "Merging the accountability and scientific research requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act: using cohort control groups," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 2225-2257, June.
    16. Paul Burkander & Nan Maxwell & Menbere Shiferaw & Matt Jacobus & Alma Vigil & Charles Tilley & Alicia Harrington & Erin Dillon & Hande Inanc & Peter Schochet, "undated". "Building College and Career Pathways for High School Students: Youth CareerConnect, Technical Report for the Impact Study," Mathematica Policy Research Reports c0b91a97d65342eb82cf8eb7f, Mathematica Policy Research.
    17. Mathur, Maya B & VanderWeele, Tyler, 2021. "Methods to address confounding and other biases in meta-analyses: Review and recommendations," OSF Preprints v7dtq, Center for Open Science.
    18. Ferraro, Paul J. & Miranda, Juan José, 2014. "The performance of non-experimental designs in the evaluation of environmental programs: A design-replication study using a large-scale randomized experiment as a benchmark," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 107(PA), pages 344-365.
    19. Aloyce R. Kaliba & Anne G. Gongwe & Kizito Mazvimavi & Ashagre Yigletu, 2021. "Impact of Adopting Improved Seeds on Access to Broader Food Groups Among Small-Scale Sorghum Producers in Tanzania," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    20. Hoang, Anh Tuan & Sandro Nižetić, & Olcer, Aykut I. & Ong, Hwai Chyuan & Chen, Wei-Hsin & Chong, Cheng Tung & Thomas, Sabu & Bandh, Suhaib A. & Nguyen, Xuan Phuong, 2021. "Impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the global energy system and the shift progress to renewable energy: Opportunities, challenges, and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:7:p:683-:d:102477. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.