Effectiveness of animal-assisted therapy and pet-robot interventions in reducing depressive symptoms among older adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Journal:
Complementary therapies in medicine
Published Date:
Jan 15, 2024
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews suggest that animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and pet-robot interventions (PRI) achieve a reduction in mental health variables such as depressive symptoms. However, these systematic reviews include both randomised and non-randomised studies, which prevents an adequate assessment of the effect of confounding variables.