COMBINED USE OF ANIMAL-ASSISTED THERAPY AND PSYCHOTHERAPY IN THE REHABILITATION OF COMBATANTS

Abstract

The work is devoted to solving the problems of definition, etiology and pathogenesis of primary diagnostics of posttraumatic stress disorder in combatants of the antiterrorist operation, who had rehabilitation in sanatorium and resort conditions. As a result of the study, the positive impact of hyppotherapy on the psychological state of combatants in the antiterrorist operation was shown, which was applied on the basis of the Psychosocial Rehabilitation Center Feldman Ecopark in sanatorium and resort conditions with medical and psychological rehabilitation. The main groups (clusters) of neurotic, pathopersonological and psychopathological manifestations in this contingent of patients are identified. The study also showed that the testees experienced childhood sexual abuse (or forcing entry into sexual relations with someone from the immediate environment of the child) correlated with higher levels of both depressive and anxiety symptoms later in adulthood. Premorbid personality characteristics of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder are heterogeneous. Although people in natural conditions that provoke anxiety are especially likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, these disorders often arise in obsessive, dependent and even schizoid personality type. However, it would be logical to expect that those individuals accessed via the questionnaire with higher level of neuroticism (or «big anxiety») are more likely to develop symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder than those of phlegmatic temperament.