A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Impact of Therapy Dog Visitation on Mood, Anxiety, and Depression in Patients Hospitalized for the Treatment of Mental Illness
Nancy R. Gee, Lisa Townsend, Erika Friedmann, Sandra B. Barker, Tushar P. Thakre, Megan K. Mueller · 2026
Read A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial Examining the Impact of Therapy Dog Visitation on Mood, Anxiety, and Depression in Patients Hospitalized for the Treatment of Mental Illness by Nancy R. Gee, Lisa Townsend, Erika Friedmann, Sandra B. Barker, Tushar P. Thakre, Megan K. Mueller (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13205560.txt.
Description
Animal visits lift spirits in many hospitals, but controlled evidence in acute psychiatric wards is thin. Nancy Gee and co-authors ran a pilot trial with 60 patients hospitalized for mental illness treatment. Each person was assigned at random to one of three routines. One group got twenty minutes a day for three days with a therapy dog and its handler, another got the handler alone for conversation, and the third got usual care. Mood, anxiety, and depression were measured around the sessions.
Mood and anxiety improved most in the dog group. Depression fell in both visiting groups compared with usual care, while handler-only visits did not consistently match the dog's benefits. Effects also varied: men and patients who live with a dog gained most clearly from the dog visits. The authors conclude the dog itself adds something a friendly visitor alone does not.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Nancy R. Gee, Lisa Townsend, Erika Friedmann, Sandra B. Barker, Tushar P. Thakre, Megan K. Mueller |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 53 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |