Does Therapy Dog Work?New research suggests that 10 minutes can make a difference

For decadesDoctors unofficially deployed Therapy dog — Canines trained to provide emotional support to people in hospitals, care facilities and other environments as part of a patient’s health plan. However, despite their many years of clinical use, until now there has been little evidence that they actually work.

compared to Important research Regarding the health benefits of dog owners, there are few controlled trials of the health outcomes of therapy dogs. A group of Canadian researchers recently set out to fill this gap. Their work, Published Journal Wednesday PLOS One, It reveals a small but important link between therapy dogs and improving the mental health of patients in the emergency room.

“This is the first control test of this kind that our team knows in Canada.” Colleen delCo-author of this study and associate of the Faculty of Public Health, University of Saskatchewan, said: reverse..

What’s New – Researchers have found that spending just 10 minutes with a therapy dog ​​improves the overall health of inpatients. Patients who spent time with treated dogs reported significantly lower levels of anxiety and depression after the visit compared to patients who had never spent time with therapy dogs.

Patients who experienced a therapy dog ​​visit also reported improved well-being and significantly reduced pain ratings compared to those who did not.

“These findings suggest that therapy dog ​​interventions have had a positive effect on reducing pain in participants,” the researchers write.

This study “provides a clearer understanding of the potential value of therapy dogs in the emergency department,” says Dell.

Important reason — Patients usually visit the emergency room to manage their pain, and mental health concerns such as anxiety often exacerbate the pain.

“People go to the emergency department primarily for pain, and the associated anxiety can exacerbate it due to environmental stresses such as bright light and long wait times,” says Dell.

Therefore, understanding how one care method, therapy dogs, affects pain and mental health is of great value in improving patient health in these situations.

“Interacting with the therapy dog ​​can calm the ER visit a bit and help patients and their families understand that all members of the ER staff are there to help and support them. . ” James StampienCo-author of this study and interim director of emergency medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, said: reverse..

There is also a timely reason for this study, a paper note.As a mounting concern Opioid epidemic As they grow up, clinicians are looking for alternative analgesia for their patients.

“There are previous studies that found that including therapy dogs in patient care plans after joint replacement surgery improved patient pain scores,” says Dell.

According to another study, the distraction therapy provided by the dog did not reduce the cause of the patient’s pain, but according to Dell it affected the patient’s perception of pain. In a sense, Dell explains that doctors informally “prescribe” people’s own pets to relieve depression and chronic pain.

“Many hospitals, care facilities, prisons, college campuses … Therapy dogs can help people in different ways, so we’re always looking for them to join,” says Dell.

However, Dell also emphasizes that further research is needed before therapy dogs can serve as a comprehensive treatment for pain in emergency departments and other environments. After all, dogs are also “sentients” and are not medicines that we can easily do, Dell says.

How they discovered — The researchers recruited hundreds of patients from the emergency department at Royal University Hospital to participate in the study. The hospital has a long-standing therapy dog ​​program.

Eventually, 97 patients were selected to receive therapy dog ​​visits and 101 patients participated in a control group that did not receive such treatment. Researchers measured patient pain severity, anxiety, depression, and general well-being on a rating scale according to the Edmonton Symptom Rating System. Higher ratings showed worse patient outcomes.

On average, therapy dogs spent 10 minutes with each patient. The researchers conducted follow-up visits and used a quantitative data analysis program to determine the difference in patient scores before and after the therapy dog ​​visit. Finally, the researchers also reviewed the analgesics patients are taking to ensure they are accurately measuring the effects of therapy dogs rather than other factors.

What’s next– While these findings are important, researchers quickly point out that their research is quite limited. One is the small sample size of the participants.

Researchers write that “larger samples are needed to investigate the interaction of multiple key demographic independent variables,” such as the experience level of therapy dogs and patient backgrounds such as ethnicity and age. I am.

Other factors, such as the potential impact of human dog handlers on therapeutic efficacy, need further research in future studies to “more accurately identify what is happening to the patient.” I have.

But for now, the new job provides concrete evidence of the treatment of pain, a job that doctors and patients have long known.