disorder (PTSD) is underway at Columbia University Irving Medical Center under the leadership of Yuval Neria, PhD, Director of Trauma and PTSD, and Prudence Fisher, PhD, Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatric Social Work (in Psychiatry) and a research scientist at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The Man O’ War Project is the first university-led research trial to establish manualized guidelines for the application of equine- assisted therapy for veterans with PTSD and to examine the effectiveness of this promising new treatment.
The project came about through the suggestion and generous support of former U.S. Ambassador Earle I. Mack, a thoroughbred owner/breeder and veteran himself, who was concerned about the mental health crisis facing veterans. “Mr. Mack has long been a proponent of using horses to help treat veterans with PTSD and in 2015, he solicited the help of Columbia’s Department of Psychiatry to design and carry out the study,” says Dr. Neria, who is also Director of the Military Family Wellness Center at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia. “Mr. Mack’s belief that horses could be beneficial to human psychopathology was a compelling idea.” An estimated 30 percent of veterans develop PTSD. “It can involve nightmares and flashbacks and avoidance of situations
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