Can Animal Assisted Interventions counteract apathy and improve physical activity levels in psychiatric patients with cognitive disability? A case study.

Background: Patients with psychiatric disorders experience a reduced quality of life also due to the antipsychoticdrugs assumed, that negatively affects their cognitive abilities. A healthy lifestyle, such as physical activity, canimprove both functional abilities and mental health of patients with a dual diagnosis, psychiatric and cognitive.Despite this knowledge, these people are more sedentary than the general population, probably because of theirapathy, core aspects of the illness. Animal Assisted Interventions (AAIs) seem to be a valid tool to stimulate themto practice physical exercise thanks to the empathy generated by the relationship with the animal.Methods: This case study aims to evaluate the effect of 4 months AAIs on apathy and physical efficiency in 2patients with dual diagnoses. Patient A and patient B, affected by psychiatric disorders and mild cognitiveimpairment, were recruited to perform an AAI, one with a dog and the other with a horse.Results: At the end of the study data showed a decrease of apathy in both patients: 􀀀 20,6% in patient A and􀀀 9.8% in patient B, as well as a reduction of psychiatric symptoms. Moreover, both patients improved thefunctional parameters evaluated through the Short Physical Battery Test (patient A = +33.3%; patient B =+28.6%).Conclusions: The preliminary results of this case report suggest that well-structured, individualized AAIs, with ahorse or with a dog, could be considered as a useful adjunctive therapy to the usual treatment programs toimprove both functional abilities and mental health in psychiatric patients.