Psychiatry Goes to the Dogs
—and to the cats and birds and reptiles and rats!
DOGS are succeeding where psychiatrists have failed. They don’t use a couch or drugs, but their bedside manner is overpowering—an open, warm, exuberant, unconditional acceptance. And not just dogs, but also other animals of various shapes and sizes are surpassing the psychiatrists. Pets are invading mental hospitals, nursing homes and institutions for homeless or retarded children.
Dr. Anthony Calabro of the Feeling Heart Foundation explains what the dogs accomplish: “The problem with residents in these institutions often is that they don’t interact with anyone. They live in isolation, it’s emotionally cold, they have nothing to do, they’re unloved. Many have lost all sense of responsibility and in some cases have very few possessions. They’re just existing, not living.” The dogs break through these people’s shells.
Dr. Calabro explains: “Dogs give love—unconditional love. They ask for attention, and when someone responds, they give love and security and warmth in return, with no strings attached.” Some psychiatrists resist pet therapy, Calabro says. “They say, ‘Here we are, spending 10 or 15 years in school learning all about psychiatry and drugs, and all these people do is bring a dog in and look what happens. There’s got to be more to it than that!’”
There is, of course, more to it than that. But when the “that” provides a feeling of love “with no strings attached,” it is potent. Calabro elaborates: “Animals don’t cure people, but they open avenues of communication and caring. They’re ice-breakers, you know, just to get the individual to open up.”
Dr. Samuel Corson, professor of psychiatry, has used dogs and sometimes cats as cotherapists and has “produced encouraging results in 28 of 30 patients who had failed to respond to traditional treatments, including electroshock therapy and drugs.”
Lima State Hospital in Ohio, a maximum security facility for the criminally insane, uses smaller animals in its pet-therapy program: birds, fish, gerbils, guinea pigs, and so forth. Here are some examples:
One patient said nothing for four months. The staff gave him a cockatiel. This parrot slept in a cage by his bed at night and perched on his shoulder during the day. He started talking to the bird, and in two months he was talking with people.
A depressed patient got involved with two baby guinea pigs. Their mother had rejected them, so the patient took over, bottle-feeding them every two hours. They depended on him. He was needed.
A suicidal patient was serving time for armed robbery. He was uncooperative, antisocial. He was given a bird to care for. “I had never felt compassion,” he said. Now this changed. He became a student of ornithology, and upon his release hopes to encourage other institutions to adopt pet-therapy programs.
Patients’ anxieties lessened and they could express love to their pets without fear of rejection. Later they opened up with people, first talking about the care of their pets. They began to feel a responsibility. They felt needed, something depended on them.
Boys from 7 to 18 years of age are sent to a certain children’s home by court order. Some have never had a real home, some were mistreated by parents, some are mentally retarded, and others were transferred from state reformatories. But they all have something in common—Tiger, an ordinary, everyday house cat. One troubled youngster, wild and uncontrollable, began spending all his time with Tiger. Affection grew between them, the boy became calm and trusting, and his relations with students and teachers improved.
In a children’s psychiatric hospital in Michigan, Skeezer, a mixed-breed dog, roams a ward, offering its companionship to any child in need. Few can resist him, and they can offer their friendship without fear of rejection. Stop and think: A dog, looking for affection, may put its head in your lap and look at you with big, brown eyes. Or a cat may purr and rub against your legs. Their requests are unmistakable. And, for most of us, irresistible.
Other studies have shown pets helpful for physical ailments. At the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore it was found that heart patients with pets had a much better chance of survival after they left the hospital than did those without pets. Of 92 patients, one year after release 11 of the 39 without pets had died, while only three of the 53 pet owners had died.
Psychiatrist Aaron Katcher of the University of Pennsylvania says: “As people get older they are needed less by family and friends, and often feel abandoned. This feeling of uselessness results in depression. A pet fills the void.”
Other studies show that having a pet reduces blood pressure. On a NOVA telecast about “touching,” Katcher said: “You’re gently calming the animal, and we know the animal’s heart rate falls just the way the person’s heart rate falls.” On another occasion Katcher claimed that “a heart patient’s chances of survival are increased threefold if he has a pet.”
So there can be distinct value to some persons in having a pet. Understandably, balance is necessary. In their proper place, pets can be beneficial for certain persons.