Combining Animal-assisted Intervention and Placebo-induced Analgesia

Summary

An increased interest of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) can be observed within clinical practice, even though it is still not entirely clear how the presence of an animal contributes to the outcome of a treatment. One theory maintains that the mere presence of an animal influences the therapeutic alliance between therapist and client.

However, results from a recent study suggest that a relationship between patient and health-provider alone is not sufficient to influence treatment outcomes, but that a therapeutic rationale is needed and that verbal instructions and suggestions are highly important in shaping participants' treatment expectations.

To investigate this theory, this study will combine AAI with a placebo intervention, as placebo interventions offer the basic form of intervention working through relationship and expectancy.

The effects of the presence of a dog will be assessed with a standardized experimental heat pain paradigm (TSA-II) in a randomized controlled trial in healthy participants (N=128).

After a baseline measurements of heat pain threshold and tolerance, participants will be randomly assigned to one of the following four conditions: a) placebo intervention , no dog present, b) placebo intervention, dog present, c) no placebo intervention, no dog present and d) no placebo intervention, dog present.

The dog will be introduced after randomization. Expectancy will be induced by telling participants that the contact to an animal increases the oxytocin level, which has an non inflammatory effect.

The placebo intervention will be a deceptive cream which is said to helps against pain.

Afterwards, posttreatment measurements will be conducted and participants fill in questionnaires about their perceptions of the experimenter.

Conditions

• Pain
• Therapeutic Alliance
• Placebo

Interventions

OTHER

Animal-assisted placebo condition

Participants receive the same verbal information as in the Placebo condition. Additionally, participants will receive the same verbal information as in the Dog only condition.

OTHER

Placebo condition

Participants receive verbal information that they are receiving an analgesic cream (i.e. ""Antidolor, containing Lidocain"), which has been shown to produce significant pain reduction in previous clinical trials. However, they will receive an inert cream.

OTHER

Dog only condition

Participants will get a therapeutic rationale for the presence of the dog. The rationale is supported in the literature and therefore not invented for the purpose of this study. Participants will be told that: "Studies have shown the presence of an animal can affect pain perception because the presence and the interaction with an animal can increase our Oxytocin level. Therefore, the investigators want to examine if the presence of a dog has an impact on your pain perception. While participants have to wait for the action time of the cream they are allowed to pet the dog. The intensity of interaction will be documented and be rated on a scale from 1-5 (1=very low degree of interaction, 5=very high degree of interaction). During the experiment the dog will be lying in the room with some distance to participants to avoid further physical interaction. The dog will always be lying at the same spot. Participants will still be able to see the dog.

OTHER

Control Condition

Participants in this condition will receive no intervention. All instructions will be conveyed in a standardized manner to ensure that the participant-experimenter relationship is comparable in terms of friendliness and attention across all four conditions.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Dr. phil. Karin Hediger, Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Switzerland

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• University Hospital, Basel, Switzerland

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Karin Hediger, Dr. phil · Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Basel

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

BASIC_SCIENCE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-06-15

Primary Completion

2020-11-30

Completion

2020-11-30

Countries

• Switzerland

Study Locations