Background: Many individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders experience insufficient symptom relief from currently available treatment options. Researching additional venues should be prioritized. This systematic review, designed in accordance with PRISMA, examined the effect of targeted and structured dog-assisted interventions as a supplementary treatment.
Methods: Randomized as well as non-randomized studies were included. Systematic searches were conducted in APA PsycInfo, AMED, CENTRAL, Cinahl, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, and in several sources covering "gray" (unpublished) literature. In addition, forward and backward citation searches were performed. A narrative synthesis was conducted. Quality of evidence and risk of bias were assessed in accordance with GRADE and RoB2/ROBINS-I criteria.
Results: 12 publications from 11 different studies met eligibility criteria. Overall, studies showed diverging results. General psychopathology, positive and negative symptoms of psychosis, anxiety, stress, self-esteem, self-determination, lower body strength, social function, and quality of life were among the outcome measures with significant improvement. Most documentation for significant improvement was found for positive symptoms. One study indicated significant deterioration of non-personal social behavior. The risk of bias was high or serious for most of the outcome measures. Three outcome measures were associated with some concerns regarding risk of bias, and three with low risk of bias. Quality of evidence was graded low or very low for all outcome measures.
Conclusions: The included studies indicate potential effects of dog-assisted interventions for adults diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders, mostly beneficial. Nevertheless, low number of participants, heterogeneity, and risk of bias complicate the interpretation of results. Carefully designed randomized controlled trials are needed to determine causality between interventions and treatment effects.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1192075 | DOI Listing |
Phys Ther
January 2025
IRCCS Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi, Milan, Italy.
Importance: Rotator cuff tendinopathy represents the most prevalent cause of shoulder pain, the third most common musculoskeletal disorder after low back pain and knee pain.
Objective: The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of corticosteroid injection(s), alone or in combination with anesthetic injection or any other physical therapist interventions, compared to physical therapist interventions alone in adults with rotator cuff tendinopathy.
Design: This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
JAMA Pediatr
January 2025
Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Importance: Spontaneous reports have indicated that montelukast increases the risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events, and the US Food and Drug Administration added a boxed warning about these risks in 2020. However, the potential mechanism is not well understood, and the observational evidence is scarce, particularly in children.
Objective: To assess the potential association between the use of montelukast and the risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events in children and adolescents.
Objectives: To determine the value of preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in predicting macrotrabecular-massive hepatocellular carcinoma (MTM-HCC).
Materials And Methods: A search was conducted on PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library databases, and Embase for studies evaluating the performance of MRI in assessing MTM-HCC. The quality assessment of diagnostic studies (QUADAS-2) tool was used to assess the risk of bias.
Breastfeed Med
January 2025
School of Public Health, College of Public Health, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas, USA.
Breastfeeding provides essential nutrition and disease protection for infants while reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and breast cancer in mothers. Despite these benefits, significant racial and ethnic disparities exist in breastfeeding initiation, particularly among Black women. This study examines racial differences in the receipt of breastfeeding information from varying sources and their association with breastfeeding initiation.
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December 2024
Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, University of Lucerne, Lucerne, Switzerland.
The choice of modality of treatment for unruptured intracranial aneurysms is based on various clinical aspects and the patient's preference. Financial considerations should not be among these. To evaluate any financial variations between endovascular and microsurgical treatment of unruptured intracranial aneurysms in the Swiss healthcare system, we retrospectively reviewed 100 consecutive aneurysm cases treated as inpatients in our institution.
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