Creative Treatments for Depression

Samantha HenryLindsay NiccolaiMichelle Ocampo

Introduction

Psychotherapy and antidepressant medication are the two most common treatment methods for depression.

Current treatments for depression provide limited therapeutic benefit.

This study aimed to identify different treatment therapies for depressed mood without the side effects or costs of antidepressant medication or the assumption of access to psychotherapy.

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Methods

There were 30 participants in each treatment group:

animal-assisted therapy (live animals) stuffed animals (not taxidermied) control (sitting alone in a similar room)

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Animal-Assisted Therapy

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Stuffed Animals

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Control

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Methods

Procedure Participants completed the BDI-II

questionnaire at Time 1 Then they were randomly assigned to one of

the three treatment conditions Participants were exposed to the treatment

condition for an hour Participants completed the BDI-II

questionnaire again after exposure to treatment at Time 2

Upon completion of the BDI-II questionnaire at Time 2, participants were given monetary compensation

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Hypotheses

µ1 = Control µ2 = Treatment: Stuffed animals µ3 = Treatment: Animal-assisted Therapy H0: µ1 = µ2 = µ3

The animal-assisted therapy will have a greater reduction in depression scores from Time 1 to Time 2 than the control and stuffed animals conditions (H1: µ3 > µ2 and µ3 > µ1).

The stuffed animals condition will have a greater reduction in depression scores than control, but not greater than animal-assisted therapy (H1: µ2 > µ1 and µ2 < µ3).

The control condition will not have a significant reduction in depression scores from Time 1 to Time 2 (H1 : mean at Time 1= mean at Time 2). M

Preliminary Analysesdata project; infile 'H:\Group Project-Henry, Niccolai, Ocampo.txt'; input id tx_group $ BDI_pre BDI_post diff; proc print data=project noobs; title 'Project Data'; run; proc univariate data=project normal; title 'descriptive stats by treatment group'; class tx_group; var BDI_pre BDI_post; run;

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Treatments and Reduction in Depression

To analyze the differences in the treatment groups in reduction in depression scores from Time 1 to Time 2 (H1: µ3 > µ2 > µ1), we ran a one-way ANOVA.

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proc anova data=project; class tx_group; model diff=tx_group; title 'One-way ANOVA for Depression Scores by Treatment'; means tx_group /lsd; run;

Reduction in Depression Scores for the Treatment Groups

The one-way ANOVA revealed a significant difference between treatment groups, F(2, 87) = ∞, p <.0001. Fisher’s LSD indicated all group differences were significant.

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t Grouping Mean N tx_group

A 12.00 30 AAT

       

B 3.00 30 SA

       

C 0.00 30 C

Mean Reduction in Depression Scores for the Treatment Groups

Power Analysis

Given 30 subjects in each of our treatment groups, these analyses have a power > .999 at alpha = .05.

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proc power; onewayanova groupmeans = 0.00 | 3.00 | 12.00 stddev = 0.00 alpha = 0.05 npergroup = 30 power = .; plot x=n min=2 max=30; run;

Conclusion of Findings

These results demonstrate the efficacy of animal-assisted therapy as a treatment for depression.

Stuffed animal therapy was also more effective for depressive symptoms than control.

Limitations with the present study:› Animal phobias› Animal allergies

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Conclusion of Findings

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Future Directions

The present study’s results could be applied to a variety of contexts and populations.

› Graduate students› Third world countries

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