Assessing Mechanisms of Anxiety Reduction in Animal-assisted Interventions
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03249116. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Assessing Mechanisms of Anxiety Reduction in Animal-assisted Interventions for Adolescents With Social aAnxiety
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Adolescence and young adulthood is a critical period for the development of social anxiety, which is often linked to other mental health challenges such as depression, mood disorders, and substance abuse. Initial evidence suggests that interacting with animals can reduce stress and anxiety, but no research has tested whether this benefit extends to adolescents at risk for social anxiety disorder. Additionally, researchers and clinicians do not understand what mechanism is responsible for anxiety reduction in animal-assisted interventions (AAIs). Therefore, the objectives of this study are to explore the specific mechanisms by which interacting with a therapy dog reduces anxiety, and to test whether such an interaction reduces anxiety in adolescents with varying levels of social anxiety.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT03249116
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Not applicable
- Enrollment
- 75 participants
Conditions and interventions
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 13 Years to 17 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepts healthy volunteers
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Sep 30, 2017
- Primary completion
- Aug 31, 2019
- Completion
- Aug 31, 2019
- Last update posted
- Oct 7, 2020
2017 – 2019
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University | North Grafton | Massachusetts | 01536 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT03249116, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Oct 7, 2020 · Synced Sep 5, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT03249116 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.