| Research Abstract |
We investigated the scientific effects of horse assisted therapy for the school refusal students as following aspects, (1) subjective symptoms, (2) psychological evaluation, (3) autonomic nervous system function, (4) comprehensive sleep scoring and sleep distribution data. In addition, to clarify the effects of horse assisted therapy, we compared the soothing effects of the horse assisted therapy, the aerobic exercise and the stool robot, named jouba (National) which moved as a horse, on the fatigue state of normal volunteers caused by mental tasks. Depression, abrasion, feeling of anxiety, and tension were significantly improved after the horse assisted therapy (p<0.001). The psychological evaluation indicated that they lighted up with delight, and that the frequency of communication among their families and their daily activities were increased after the therapy. Furthermore, when we evaluated their autonomic nervous system function by using the analysis of heart rate variability, th
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e activity of sympathetic nerve system was dominant as compared to that of the parasympathetic nerve system before the treatment, but the ratio of activity of sympathetic nerve system/parasympathetic nerve system was significantly decreased after the treatment (p<0.05). On the other hand, when we studied the scientific effects of consecutive horse assisted therapy for five days in three school refusal students, all of three students said that horse assisted therapy was very delightful, and their ratios of activity of sympathetic nerve system/parasympathetic nerve system were tended to be decreased after the treatment on first day. However, only one student was able to participate for five days treatment. As concerns the student who had five days treatment, the amount of arousal during sleep was decreased and improvement of the sleep efficiency was found after treatment.
On the contrary, when we studied the scientific effects of the horse assisted therapy, the aerobic exercise and the stool robot on the fatigue state of normal volunteers caused by mental tasks, sense of fatigue, feeling of energy, tension, and willingness were significantly improved after only the aerobic exercise as compared to controlled group (p<0.05). However, in addition to the effects of the aerobic exercise, depression, abrasion, feeling of anxiety and physical condition were significantly improved after the horse assisted therapy as compared to controlled group (p<0.05). Interestingly, depression, abrasion, willingness, and physical condition were significantly improved after using the stool robot. From this study, the scientific effects of the horse assisted therapy become clear, and the horse assisted therapy is more effective than only the aerobic exercise for the improvement of symptoms found in the fatigue state. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the stool robot named jouba might become a useful tool for the treatment of the school refusal students who were stuck in the house. Less
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