The Growing Psychological Trend of using Dog Therapy to Increase Hormones in Stressed Patients
(455 Words)
The mental state of patients can make a difference in their physical recovery, sometimes even weighing on the balance between life and death. Of course, many patients experience anxiety, and a growing trend is to use dog therapy to release helpful hormones. There are many ways that this can be helpful.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison Children’s Hospital performed a study with hospitalized children to study the effects of dog therapy. The results showed an increase in happiness in these children, results outlined in the winter 2002-2003 issue of Children’s Health Care Journal. Feelings of happiness can help to ease some of the harmful effects of stress on the body and help the patients focus on recovery.
Some studies have focused specifically on hormones, which may affect these feelings of well-being. Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D., RN, of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for the Study of Animal Wellness, showed that the simple petting of a dog was correlated with an increase in stress-busting hormones. These hormones include beta endorphin, prolactin, dopamine, oxytocin, and beta phenylethylamine. The stress hormone of cortison may be decreased as well.
Alberta Health’s innovation fund funded a major study in 2003, which cost over $300,000 and ranged over two years. It found that dog therapy was effective in patients experiencing depression and anxiety. For patients with this as their major illness or with these conditions as a side effect of another illness, this can make a large difference.
Numerous studies have continued to show the positive effect of dog therapy on hormones in stressed patients. In 2005, Kathie Cole, a UCLA Medical Center nurse, announced very positive findings from their study of dog therapy and hormones of cardiac patients. Epinephrine levels, which are associated with stress, dropped in those with dog visitors as compared to control groups. Other positive signs emerged such as lowering of heart and lung pressure.
The findings of these numerous studies cannot be denied. Pet therapy is an excellent way to treat patients for stress because it involves no medications or subsequent side effects. Many patients are already on a myriad of medications and further ones could damage their liver or affect other systems.
Another advantage of dog therapy is that it can be helpful for people of all different ages and with all different conditions. Its affect on hormones can work for children or for elderly patients, for those with mental illnesses and for those with very physical ailments such as cancer and heart disease.
Dog therapy can have a great affect on hormones in stressed patients. Because of its success, many hospitals and other medical centers are using it as a growing trend to aid their patients. Hopefully this will continue in the future.
Sources:
http://www.petcaretrust.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3321
http://www.angelonaleash.org/studies_healingpower.cfm