Pet-Assisted Therapy for Depression

Pet-assisted therapy, also known as animal-assisted therapy (AAT), goes beyond the companionship that a dog or a cat may provide to a human. In fact, the Delta Society, a nonprofit organization devoted to working with pets and humans, defines animal-assisted therapy as a goal-directed approach that uses specific animals to achieve a certain outcome in a patient's health. Pet-assisted therapy has been studied in patients with depression and has the potential to affect many lives.

Use a Pet in College

• Consider using pet-assisted therapy for depression while enrolled at a college or university. If living in a dorm, discuss the possibility with your resident associate (RA) of having a therapy pet available that will aid in your treatment of depression. Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) has been shown to be effective in treating adult college students. Its use was presented in a research article by Dr. Eileen B. Folse and three other researchers published in a 1994 issue of Anthrozoos journal.

  In their study, two groups of adult college students were measured on the Beck Depression Inventory before and after being treated with animal-assisted therapy or a control measure. Statistical analysis of the data showed that Beck Depression Inventory scores were significantly lower for those treated with animal-assisted therapy than for those treated with the control. In other words, those treated with AAT showed fewer symptoms of depression afterward than did those who received the control.

Focus on the Animal

• While using pet-assisted therapy for depression, talk to the animal and focus on it instead of your depressive symptoms. This should almost be automatic, because the mere presence of a pet is usually comforting to most people. However, the Delta Society suggests that animal-assisted therapy can increase a depressed person's self-esteem by enabling a person to focus on the pet and the environment instead of himself.

Decrease Your Anxiety

• Combine pet-assisted therapy with other traditional forms of talk therapy. One of your goals should be to decrease anxiety levels by combining both techniques. A research article published in a June 1998 issue of Psychiatric Services showed a combination to be effective.

  This study used 230 psychiatric inpatients suffering from psychotic, mood and other disorders such as depression. Inpatients were treated with both regular therapeutic sessions and animal-assisted therapy sessions at different intervals to compare their effects on anxiety levels. Results showed that the regular therapeutic session was effective in decreased anxiety levels only for mood disorders, but animal-assisted therapy was just as effective in reducing anxiety for mood disorders as well as for a variety of other psychiatric illnesses.