YATEP - The Impact of Horse Assisted Therapy (HAT) on Treatment Outcomes
Condition: Addiction
MeSH terms: Behavior, Addictive
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The objective of the study is to assess the impact of horse assisted therapy (HAT) on:

        -  Addiction treatment outcomes (its effectiveness as an alternative therapy)

        -  Addiction treatment dropout & addiction relapse (its efficacy in preventing dropout).

      Hypothesis: HAT will correlate with:

        -  beneficial treatment outcomes of depression, anxiety, aggression

        -  with improved self esteem & motivation

        -  lower treatment dropout & addiction relapse.
    

Detailed description: 
      Background Inclusion of horses in therapeutic settings is a scientific issue with significant
      social and health implications in Norway. Challenges include increasing provision of horse
      assisted therapy of variable quality to vulnerable population groups with little
      substantiating evidence of associated benefit(s) due to lack of research, design issues,
      mainstream clinicians'/scientists' scepticism of "alternative therapy" and associated
      difficulties in attracting top researchers and funding. Extensive review of literature found
      a growing volume of studies but as indicated in the most recent systematic review, there are
      few studies with adequate research design.

      Oslo University Hospital's Dept of Addiction Treatment - Youth (AUA) presents a unique
      research/evaluation potential to study HAT. It will treat approximately 100 patients per year
      aged 16 to 26 years with a primary diagnosis of addiction. Horse assisted therapy (using
      AUA's residential herd) is an integral part of the addiction therapeutic program.
      Furthermore, AUA's strong emphasis on research and its Youth Addiction Treatment Evaluation
      Project (YATEP) data base will provide an evidence base needed for sound study in an emerging
      area of science and psychotherapy.

      Patient drop out from addiction therapy is high, often exceeding 50% (Stark 1992). Many AUA
      patients claim that they remain in treatment because of the horses.

      The study is a randomised controlled trial of in-patients undergoing treatment. The
      Participant Group has treatment as usual plus HAT; the Control Group treatment as usual.

      Participant and control groups are drawn from AUA patients (aged 16 to 26 years of age with a
      primary diagnosis of addiction International Classification of Diseases (ICD F10-F19),
      admitted between 2013 and 2014 to AUA's in-patient unit and who have consented to participate
      in research.

      HAT is a structured program of 12 X 90 minute therapeutic sessions with horses, including
      horse care, ground and mounted work, conducted by two clinically qualified therapists who are
      also Level I Riding Instructors.
    

Intervention name(s): Mentalization based inpatient treatment.; Horse assisted Therapy (HAT)
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): 1-3 month of inpatient treatment; A structured program of 12 X 90 minute HAT sessions (horse care, ground and mounted work) conducted by two clinically qualified therapists who are also Level I Riding Instructors.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Horse Assisted Therapy (HAT); Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP); clinical trial; Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT); psychotherapy