Equine-Facilitated Psychotherapy as a Supplementary Treatment for Patients with Mental and/or Substance Use Disorders: An Observational Study on Treatment Outcome

Abstract

This study examines whether adult patients (n = 105) with mental and/or substance use disorders benefit from equine-facilitated psychotherapy (EFP)—therapy with horses—in addition to regular treatment. The study used an observational pre-post-study design with two measurement points. Treatment outcomes were measured using standardized self-report instruments reflecting psychological distress (Hopkins Symptom Checklist-10), self-efficacy (General Self-Efficacy Scale-5), quality of life (Quality of Life-5), and emotion regulation (sub-scale from the Severity Indices of Personality Problems-118). All outcome measurements found statistically significant pre-post improvements after the EFP treatment program. The findings suggest that EFP could be a beneficial supplementary treatment for a broad range of patients with mental and/or substance use disorders. However, this observational study cannot establish causation or eliminate confounding variables.