A Heart Patient's Best Friend
By Robert Roy Britt
LiveScience Managing
Editor
posted: 15 November
2005
12:43 pm ET
Dogs are better at relaxing heart-failure
patients than people, a new study found.
"Dogs are a great comfort," says
study leader Kathie Cole of the
Researchers studied 76 people hospitalized
with heart failure. Each got either a 12-minute visit from a
human volunteer or a human volunteer and
a dog. A control group got no visit. The dogs were
specially trained to
lie on the bed and interact with the patient.
The scientists monitored the patients' blood
pressure, release of harmful hormones and other measurables that characterize heart failure. An anxiety test was done before and
after the session.
Anxiety scores dropped 24 percent among
patients interacting with a dog. Scores dropped 10 percent when
only a human visited. The group that got no visit exhibited no change.
Dogs helped cause a 17 percent drop in a
stress hormone called epinephrine, while human visitors could
muster only a 2 percent dip. The hormone
level rose 7 percent, on average, in the group that
got no
visitor.
Similar improvements were seen in other
measures.
"This study demonstrates that even a
short-term exposure to dogs has beneficial physiological and
psychosocial effects on patients who want it," Cole said. "This therapy
warrants serious consideration as an adjunct to medical therapy in
hospitalized heart failure patients."
The study, announced today, is detailed in the
American Heart Association's Scientific
Sessions 2005.