A study recently published in PLOS One by researchers at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada has concluded that just 10 minutes of doggy affection can make people feel less pain .
The research took place in the emergency room of the Royal University Hospital , in Saskatoon, Canada. More than 200 patients were asked to rate their level of pain on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest level of pain. All participants were in single beds or curtained rooms in the emergency department. The patients were waiting to be seen by a doctor, had ongoing treatment, or were admitted to hospital waiting for a bed in the unit. All patients who met the participant selection criteria and who could be approached without interfering with their care were recruited.
Two groups were then formed: one of them spent 10 minutes with a therapy dog and the other did not. The researchers again asked them to rate their level of pain. Well, those who received the dog visit said they had less pain. The others don’t.
“There was a statistically significant (albeit small) main effect of the therapy dog intervention on participants’ pain ratings. Participants in the therapy dog team group rated pain significantly lower than those in the control group on the post-intervention measurement. Furthermore, no significant interaction between gender and intervention was found. These results suggest that the intervention with therapy dogs had a positive effect in reducing the pain of the participants, and that this effect is similar for people of both sexes”, the researchers point out in the publication.
In the past decade, therapy dogs have become increasingly common in healthcare settings in the United States , including fields such as geriatric psychiatry, pediatric oncology, and hospital stays. However, the research available to guide an implementation is still limited, even less if we talk about emergency services. The scientists say in their study that much of the research does not take the handler into account, even though the handler and dog form a team, that sample sizes are often small, that control groups are lacking, and that there are a high proportion of participants who are women.
“With a sizable sample size, control group, and representation of male and female participants, the current study addressed these questions and found that visiting therapy dog teams had a positive, albeit small, impact on patient pain. and on related measures of anxiety, depression, and well-being. The therapy dog intervention group had a greater reduction in reported pain compared to the control group. Gender had no significant impact, except for a minor influence on anxiety. Heart rate and blood pressure were not affected by visiting therapy dog teams. The clinical importance of these results is significant and requires further attention and study,” say the researchers.
The pain
Pain is one of the main reasons that lead us to the emergency room of a hospital. The results of this study suggest the existence of significant differences before and after in the group of people who received the visit of the therapy dog compared to the control group, which did not receive any visit.
Previous studies have shown that interactions with a therapy dog can alleviate the perception of pain by serving as a distraction from symptoms , as well as influencing the perception of pain intensity. One study found that involving therapy dogs immediately after joint replacement surgery improved participants’ pain scores because it helped distract them from the pain. In these cases, the source of pain is not addressed, but its perception is relieved.
Other researchers propose a more direct relationship, suggesting that this occurs because the interaction exerts an effect on certain biological markers that correspond to pain, such as cortisol , as well as cardiac indicators of stress, such as blood pressure and heart rate. It has also been suggested that pain reduction may be influenced by the release of beneficial hormones and neurochemicals such as oxytocin, as well as decreased levels of stress hormones, such as cortisol, when an animal is stroked .
Going back to the just published study. “The findings of this novel study provide important insights into the potential value of emergency therapy dogs in affecting patients’ experience of pain, and related measures of anxiety, depression, and well-being,” the researchers wrote in the journal. publication.
Referencia: Carey B et al. 2022. Outcomes of a controlled trial with visiting therapy dog teams on pain in adults in an emergency department. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0262599
