The dog will see you now! Spending just TEN MINUTES with therapy dog can relieve pain

Spending just 10 minutes with specially-trained therapy dogs can relieve pain and anxiety in A&E patients, a study suggests.  

Patients admitted to emergency departments saw their pain levels decline by up to 43 per cent after interacting with a spaniel named Murphy. Volunteers also reported an up to 48 per cent reduction in feelings of anxiety.

Depending on their mobility and condition, patients could pet Murphy or have him lie next to them as a source of comfort and companionship.  

Publishing their findings in the journal Plos One, the Canadian researchers said they found no similar reductions in control group patients.  

Previous research has shown even small interactions with dogs can cause the brain to produce oxytocin, a hormone often referred to as the ‘cuddle chemical’.

While the therapeutic effects of specially trained animals in health settings have been established previously, prior experiments often failed to provide controls to measure the impact.    

To measure this effect, researchers at the University of Saskatchewan set up a trial of almost 200 patients who were admitted to the emergency department of Royal University Hospital. 

Patients were asked to rate their pain, depression, and anxiety out of 10 twice, with a 30-minute gap between ratings.

About half of the patients had a visit from a therapy dog called Murphy for 10 minutes in the middle of the ratings.   

Dr Colleen Dell, an expert in health and wellness and lead author of the study, said the findings demonstrated the potential value in therapy dogs for emergency department patients. 

‘Clinically significant changes in pain as well as significant changes in anxiety, depression and well-being were observed in the therapy dog intervention compared to control,’ she said. 

Therapy dogs are occasionally used in the NHS to help patients whose condition means they need to stay in hospital for a long time, such as in paediatrics or palliative care settings.  

Additionally, animal assisted interventions are used as part of actual treatment for mental health problems such as depression. 

NHS trusts usually rely on local arrangements with charities or trained volunteers to get animals onto wards. 

The authors cited previous research that found that petting animals released painkilling hormone oxytocin, and suppress the stress hormone cortisol as a reason why therapy dogs could have such an impact.   

They also said another potential factor which could have impacted the results was the role of the therapy dog handler who, as part of the process, talks to the patients about their experience with dogs and how comfortable they were with animals.

Further research could examine the impact of this interaction on patients’ experience the authors said. 

Other avenues for further work could look at different patient groups from other areas with the majority of the patients in the study Caucasians over the age of 50.