Pet Therapy

Paper Summary:

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has a long, but undocumented history. It is only within the last half of the twentieth century that research and professional response been conducted on the use of animals in therapy. The paper discusses how pet-facilitated therapy is used successfully in a wide range of settings including coronary patients, hospitalized psychiatric patients, emotionally disturbed youth and the elderly, both in outpatient and institutional settings. The paper also discusses the theoretical and practical implications of AAT as well as research and empirical studies on the topic.

From the Paper:

"A further attempt to establish a firm scientific basis for AAT was a study, in 1999, of 18 dogs and 18 humans in which all had their neurochemicals and mean arterial pressure measured. The study, an unpublished PhD thesis for the University of South Africa, compared the effects of quiet reading with those of human-animal interaction and showed that the activities were almost equally effective in relieving human stress (as measured by increases in oxytoxin, prolactin, and endorphin levels). Critics of this study, however, point to the small sample size and question its validity when applied generally (Stanley-Hermanns & Miller, 2002)."

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