Equine-assisted Therapy Effectiveness in Improving Emotion Regulation, Self-efficacy, and Perceived Self-esteem of Patients Suffering From Substance Use Disorder

Research design: A randomized controlled trial design will be utilized in this study.

Setting: The study will conduct Behman hospital, Helwan, Cairo, Egypt. It was founded in 1940 as the first private psychiatric hospital in Egypt. With a 210-bed capacity, the hospital is considered as one of the biggest medical centers in Helwan, Egypt. The hospital is the pioneer of equine psychotherapy in Egypt.

Duration of the Study: The four phases of data collection are expected to take 6 months, from December 2022 to May 2023.

Subjects: The study population will consist of all Patients suffering from substance use disorder receiving their care at Behman hospital, during the time of the study. The inclusion criteria will be being adult diagnosed with substance use disorder, hospitalized for at least one month in the study hospital, and physically able to deal with horses. Those patients suffering from any other physical or psychological ailments preventing them from active participation in the intervention will exclude. The remaining patients will equally randomized, using simple random numbers computer program, into an intervention group to receive the equine assisted therapy and a control group to receive the regular care used in the setting.

Data collection tools: Data will be collected using a self-administered questionnaire with standardized tools for assessment of emotion regulation, General Self-Efficacy, and perceived self-esteem, in addition to a section for the demographic and disease characteristics developed by the researchers. This cover data about patient age, gender, current marital status, place of residence, educational level, current job status, income, as well as age at start and duration of substance of use etc.