@article{ref1,
title="Hippotherapy as a treatment for socialization after sexual abuse and emotional stress",
journal="Journal of physical therapy science",
year="2015",
author="Guerino, Marcelo R. and Briel, Alysson F. and Araújo, Maria das Graças Rodrigues",
volume="27",
number="3",
pages="959-962",
abstract="[Purpose] Hippotherapy is a therapeutic resource that uses the horse as a kinesiotherapy instrument to elicit motor and cognitive improvements in individuals with special needs. [Subjects and Methods] This research evaluated two women aged 18 and 21 years, who had suffered sexual violence when they were children between the ages of 6 and 7 years old. The subjects did not have mental dysfunction but they were regular students registered at a school of special education. The patients presented severe motor limitation, difficulty with coordination, significant muscular retractions, thoracic and cervical kyphosis, cervical protrusion wich was basically a function of the postures they had adopted when victims of the sexual violence suffered in childhood. The patients performed twenty sessions of 30 minutes of hippotherapy on a horse. The activities were structured to stimulate coordination, proprioception, the vestibular and motor-sensorial systems for the improvement of posture, muscle activity and cognition. [Results] The activities provided during the hippotherapy sessions elicited alterations in postural adjustment resulting in 30% improvement, 80% improvement in coordination in, 50% improvement in corporal balance and in sociability and self-esteem. [Conclusion] Hippotherapy proved to be an effective treatment method for coordination, balance and postural correction, and also improved the patients' self-esteem that had suffered serious emotional stress.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0915-5287",
doi="10.1589/jpts.27.959",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1589/jpts.27.959"
}