Assisted Animal Therapy: ReAnimal

Assisted Animal Therapy in a French Intensive Care Unit (ICU): An Open Randomized Study

Assisted animal therapy (AAT) is getting more and more used worldwide, in such areas as gerontology, psychiatry, or oncology. It is a complementary therapy, and benefits for patients are various, including decrease of anxiety. In ICU, some case reports exist, but no study has ever been made in order to prove its benefits, not even its feasibility.

In ReAnimal, the investigator aims to compare a group of patients receiving assisted animal therapy, versus a group of patients not receiving it. Primary objective will be the evolution of anxiety scores between the 2 groups of patients. Secondary objectives will be the comparison of mood scores, post traumatic stress syndrome scores, pain scores, and physiologic parameters such as blood pressure, cardiac frequency. The investigating team will also compare multi drug resistant bacteria incidence between the 2 groups. In the assisted animal therapy group, patients will also be asked to answer a satisfaction questionnaire.

Inclusion Criteria:

• patients hospitalized in surgical ICU, not in acute stage of their ICU stay
• adult patient
• able to receive information and to give consent,
• with national social insurance

Exclusion Criteria:

• afraid of animal, dog phobia
• allergic to dog
• immunodepression (neutrophils <0.5 G/L), induced by treatment (chemotherapy, immunosuppressing treatment with high doses, corticotherapy for more than 2 weeks) or induced by disease (malignant blood disease, AIDS, transplantation, or splenectomy)
• sepsis ongoing
• patient known for having multidrug resistant bacteria
• wounds, or large bandages that could not correctly be covered, including external fixer
• central venous catheter, arterial catheter
• tracheostomy
• agitation, aggressiveness
• pregnant women
• patient deprived of freedom by juridical or administrative decision
• patient under legal protection measure
• patient receiving enforced psychiatric treatment
• patient admitted in a sanitary or social department.