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Copyright of Ciencia en su PC is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ciencia en su PC is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Ciencia en su PC is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia living in long-term care units show high levels of disability. The present study aimed to assess the effectiveness of including a trained therapy dog in an intervention program applied to institutionalized patients with chronic schizophrenia. A randomized, controlled study with blind assessment was conducted. Twenty-four persons with chronic schizophrenia were randomly selected from a register that included all inpatients at Saint John of God's psychiatric hospital in Spain. Patients who agreed to participate (n =21) were randomly assigned to one of the two treatment groups: one group received an intervention assisted by a therapy dog (IG+D) (12 patients), while the other received the same intervention but without a therapy dog (IG) (9 patients). The assessment items included the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS), the Living Skills Profile (LSP), the Brief World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment (WHOQOL-BREF), and the Satisfaction with Treatment Questionnaire (STQ). Mann Whitney U tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were conducted. Patients in the lG+D group showed significant improvements in the LSP social contact score (0=0.041), in the positive (p = 0.005) and negative symptom dimensions (p = 0.005) and total score of the PANSS (p = 0.014), and in quality of life related with social relationships (0 = 0.024). Patients in the IG group showed significant positive changes in positive (0 = 0.027) and general symptoms (0= 0.046) and total PANSS score (0=0.027). No differences were found between the two groups before and after the application of the intervention. Introducing a dog into the psychosocial intervention for patients with schizophrenia produced some positive outcomes. However, the results of the study are not conclusive and must be interpreted cautiously. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]