ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 06 May 2016 doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00631 Edited by: Chris J. Gibbons, University of Cambridge, UK Reviewed by: Xochitl Angelica Ortiz, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Mexico Charlotte Garrett, University of Manchester, UK *Correspondence: Paula Calvo paula.calvo@uab.cat Specialty section: This article was submitted to Psychology for Clinical Settings, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology Received: 31 December 2015 Accepted: 15 April 2016 Published: 06 May 2016 Citation: Calvo P, Fortuny JR, Guzmán S, Macías C, Bowen J, García ML, Orejas O, Molins F, Tvarijonaviciute A, Cerón JJ, Bulbena A and Fatjó J (2016) Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) Program As a Useful Adjunct to Conventional Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Patients with Schizophrenia: Results of a Small-scale Randomized Controlled Trial. Front. Psychol. 7:631. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00631 Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) Program As a Useful Adjunct to Conventional Psychosocial Rehabilitation for Patients with Schizophrenia: Results of a Small-scale Randomized Controlled Trial Paula Calvo 1,2 *, Joan R. Fortuny 3 , Sergio Guzmán 3 , Cristina Macías 3 , Jonathan Bowen 1,4 , María L. García 3 , Olivia Orejas 3 , Ferran Molins 3 , Asta Tvarijonaviciute 5,6 , José J. Cerón 5 , Antoni Bulbena 1,2,3 and Jaume Fatjó 1,2 1 Chair Affinity Foundation Animals and Health, Department of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain, 2 Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain, 3 Centres Assistencials Emili Mira, Institut de Neuropsiquiatria i Addiccions, Parc de Salut Mar, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain, 4 Queen Mother Hospital for Small Animals, The Royal Veterinary College, Hertfordshire, UK, 5 Interlab-UMU, Campus de Excelencia Mare Nostrum, Universidad de Murcia, Murcia, Spain, 6 Department of Medicine and Animal Surgery, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Spain Currently, one of the main objectives of human–animal interaction research is to demonstrate the benefits of animal assisted therapy (AAT) for specific profiles of patients or participants. The aim of this study is to assess the effect of an AAT program as an adjunct to a conventional 6-month psychosocial rehabilitation program for people with schizophrenia. Our hypothesis is that the inclusion of AAT into psychosocial rehabilitation would contribute positively to the impact of the overall program on symptomology and quality of life, and that AAT would be a positive experience for patients. To test these hypotheses, we compared pre-program with post-program scores for the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the EuroQoL-5 dimensions questionnaire (EuroQol-5D), pre-session with post-session salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase for the last four AAT sessions, and adherence rates between different elements of the program. We conducted a randomized, controlled study in a psychiatric care center in Spain. Twenty-two institutionalized patients with chronic schizophrenia completed the 6-month rehabilitation program, which included individual psychotherapy, group therapy, a functional program (intended to improve daily functioning), a community program (intended to facilitate community reintegration) and a family program. Each member of the control group (n = 8) participated in one activity from a range of therapeutic activities that were part of the functional program. In place of this functional program activity, the AAT-treatment group (n = 14) participated in twice-weekly 1-h sessions of AAT. All participants received the same weekly total number of hours of rehabilitation. At the end of the program, both groups (control and AAT-treatment) showed significant improvements in positive and overall symptomatology, as measured with PANSS, but only the AAT-treatment group showed a significant improvement in Frontiers in Psychology | www.frontiersin.org 1 May 2016 | Volume 7 | Article 631