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A dog close to one's heart
16/11/2005 10:47 - (SA)
Dallas - It turns out dogs are more than man's best friend. They're pretty good at making the sick feel better, too, in ways that can be measured.
A small study showed that visits from therapeutic dogs lowered anxiety, stress and heart and lung pressure among heart failure patients.
"I'm not surprised at all that something that makes people feel good also makes them feel less anxious, has measurable physiological effects," said Dr Marc Gillinov, a cardiac surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic who was not involved in the study.
"You can see it on their face, first you see a smile and then you see the worries of the world roll off their shoulders," said Kathie Cole, a nurse at the University of California Los Angeles Medical Centre who led the study presented on Tuesday at an American Heart Association meeting.
Physiological responses
Cole and her colleagues studied 76 heart failure patients - average age 57 - who got either a visit from a volunteer, a volunteer plus a dog, or no visit.
The scientists meticulously measured patients' physiological responses before, during and after the visits.
Anxiety as measured by a standard rating scale dropped 24% for those visited by the dog and volunteer team, but only by 10% for those visited by just a volunteer. The scores for the group with no visit remained the same.
Levels of epinephrine, a hormone the body makes when under stress, dropped about 17% in patients visited by a person and a dog, and 2% in those visited just by a person. But levels rose about 7% in the unvisited group.
Heart pressure dropped 10% after the visit by the volunteer and dog. It increased 3% for those visited by a volunteer and 5% for those who got no visit. Lung pressure declined 5% for those visited by a dog and a volunteer. It rose in the other two groups.
Pet therapy
Gillinov said the study was especially impressive because of the hard data it provided as opposed to observations.
Cole said she hopes the study, funded by the Pet Care Trust Foundation, a non-profit organisation that promotes the value of animals in society, helps show that pet therapy is a credible addition to patient care, not just a nicety.
"It makes the hospital seem less like a hospital and it lowers people's blood pressure," said Linda Marler, education co-ordinator for Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation and animal assisted therapy co-ordinator for Baylor Healthcare System. Her programme has grown from its beginnings in 1985 with one dog to 84.
The dogs used in the study - which ranged from a poodle to a golden retriever to a miniature schnauzer - were carefully screened and had to pass a behaviour test and check-up. Patients' own dogs could also be used for the study.
Dr George Dennish, a cardiologist in California said he sometimes uses dogs in therapy: "(The patients) felt better, they felt calmer, they felt more satisfied," Dennish said.
www.americanheart.org
- AP
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