Engaging Adolescents: Animal Assisted Therapy for Adolescents with Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders

Objectives This study compares treatment engagement and outcomes between two groups of adolescents with psychiatric and substance use disorders (SUD): one received treatment with Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) and another without AAT. Methods This is an exploratory study with a quasi-experimental pre-post comparison group design. Participants were 31 adolescents (ages 12–17 years) participating in an urban school-based substance treatment program. Cases ( n = 14) received treatment with AAT, whereas comparison ( n = 17) received treatment without AAT. The outcome measures included: number of sessions attended, proportion of negative urine drug screens for non-nicotine substances, overall-wellbeing, and the School Engagement Instrument. Student’s T test and a Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test were used to evaluate differences. Outcomes that differed significantly between groups were further evaluated using unadjusted linear regression. Results Participants who received treatment with AAT (M = 9.9, SD = 3.2) attended more therapy sessions within a 16-week period ( β = 3.5, t(1) = 2.89, p = 0.0072) than those that received treatment without AAT (M = 6.4, SD = 3.5). Additionally, the AAT group (Mdn = 2.9, IQR: 1.8, 5.0) had a greater improvement in overall-wellbeing ( β = 3.6, t(1) = 3.74, p = 0.0009) than treatment group without AAT (Mdn = 0.5, IQR: −2.6, 1.4). Conclusions AAT could be a way to increase engagement for youth in substance use treatment.