Animal-assisted interventions: Review of current status and future challenges

Abstract

Previous bibliographic reviews have highlighted that Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAIs), though promising, may have some weaknesses in their empirical basis that must be addressed. Present study reviewed 228 references gathered through PyscINFO database, all of which included the terms animal and assisted within the key concepts field, providing several indicators of productivity (such as publications per year, the relative presence of different types of texts, the country and the language of publication, the author?s productivity and type of reference, and the main sources of information such as journals and research teams) and content (relative presence of different assisted interventions, methodology, areas of interest, and contents addressed by the most prolific authors) in the field. The number of texts on AAI published per year has increased only slightly in the last decade, and such texts have been published in mainly U.S. English-language sources. Animal assisted therapy appeared as the most researched intervention, although inconsistencies in the use of terms and definitions were found. Empirical studies represented most of the classified texts, although their prominence among the most prolific authors was low. It was detected that AAIs have an increasing empirical base, although the gap between research and dissemination keeps open. More research efforts will be necessary to cover the deficiencies identified in the field.