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Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation
Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms include re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and cognitive deficits, reflecting both emotional and cognitive dysregulation. In recent years, non-pharmacological approaches and specifically animal-assisted therapy have been shown to be b...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Taylor & Francis
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635621/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34868486 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1995264 |
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author | Maoz, Inon Zubedat, Salman Dolev, Talya Aga-Mizrachi, Shlomit Bloch, Boaz Michaeli, Yuval Eshed, Yuval Grinstein, Dan Avital, Avi |
author_facet | Maoz, Inon Zubedat, Salman Dolev, Talya Aga-Mizrachi, Shlomit Bloch, Boaz Michaeli, Yuval Eshed, Yuval Grinstein, Dan Avital, Avi |
author_sort | Maoz, Inon |
collection | PubMed |
description | Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms include re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and cognitive deficits, reflecting both emotional and cognitive dysregulation. In recent years, non-pharmacological approaches and specifically animal-assisted therapy have been shown to be beneficial for a variety of disorders such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and PTSD. However, little is mentioned in the literature about the reciprocal effects of the animal–human interaction. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a one-year dog training programme on PTSD symptomatology in youngsters with PTSD and on dogs’ behaviour. Methods: Fifty-three adolescents, previously exposed to interpersonal trauma, were clinically diagnosed with PTSD and assigned to a dog-training programme group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 23) that engaged in other training programmes (e.g. cooking, hairstyling, etc.). Both groups were evaluated at baseline and following 12-months by The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 in Children and Adolescents (CAPS-CA-5) and Beck-Depression Inventory (BDI). Additionally, we physiologically measured both emotional and attention dysregulation. Results: Post-12-months training, a significant alleviation of PTSD symptomatology accompanied by lower depression severity was observed in the dog-training group, compared with a insignificant recovery in the control group. Furthermore, improved emotional and attentional regulation was observed in the dog-training group. Measuring the dogs’ behaviour revealed increased anxiety and decreased selective attention performance, which was inversely correlated with the beneficial effects observed in the dog-training programme group. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the role of emotional and attentional regulations on the dog–handler interface, as evidence-based support for the beneficial effects of the dog-training programme, as either a non-pharmacological intervention or as complementary to anti-depressants treatment of PTSD. Though pharmacological treatments increase the patients’ well-being by treating certain PTSD symptoms, our suggested dog-training programme seems to influence the PTSD diagnostic status, thus may be implemented in civilians and veterans with PTSD. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8635621 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Taylor & Francis |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-86356212021-12-02 Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation Maoz, Inon Zubedat, Salman Dolev, Talya Aga-Mizrachi, Shlomit Bloch, Boaz Michaeli, Yuval Eshed, Yuval Grinstein, Dan Avital, Avi Eur J Psychotraumatol Basic Research Article Background: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms include re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and cognitive deficits, reflecting both emotional and cognitive dysregulation. In recent years, non-pharmacological approaches and specifically animal-assisted therapy have been shown to be beneficial for a variety of disorders such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, and PTSD. However, little is mentioned in the literature about the reciprocal effects of the animal–human interaction. Objective: To evaluate the effects of a one-year dog training programme on PTSD symptomatology in youngsters with PTSD and on dogs’ behaviour. Methods: Fifty-three adolescents, previously exposed to interpersonal trauma, were clinically diagnosed with PTSD and assigned to a dog-training programme group (n = 30) and a control group (n = 23) that engaged in other training programmes (e.g. cooking, hairstyling, etc.). Both groups were evaluated at baseline and following 12-months by The Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 in Children and Adolescents (CAPS-CA-5) and Beck-Depression Inventory (BDI). Additionally, we physiologically measured both emotional and attention dysregulation. Results: Post-12-months training, a significant alleviation of PTSD symptomatology accompanied by lower depression severity was observed in the dog-training group, compared with a insignificant recovery in the control group. Furthermore, improved emotional and attentional regulation was observed in the dog-training group. Measuring the dogs’ behaviour revealed increased anxiety and decreased selective attention performance, which was inversely correlated with the beneficial effects observed in the dog-training programme group. Conclusions: Our findings emphasize the role of emotional and attentional regulations on the dog–handler interface, as evidence-based support for the beneficial effects of the dog-training programme, as either a non-pharmacological intervention or as complementary to anti-depressants treatment of PTSD. Though pharmacological treatments increase the patients’ well-being by treating certain PTSD symptoms, our suggested dog-training programme seems to influence the PTSD diagnostic status, thus may be implemented in civilians and veterans with PTSD. Taylor & Francis 2021-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC8635621/ /pubmed/34868486 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1995264 Text en © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) ), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Basic Research Article Maoz, Inon Zubedat, Salman Dolev, Talya Aga-Mizrachi, Shlomit Bloch, Boaz Michaeli, Yuval Eshed, Yuval Grinstein, Dan Avital, Avi Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title | Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title_full | Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title_fullStr | Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title_full_unstemmed | Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title_short | Dog training alleviates PTSD symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
title_sort | dog training alleviates ptsd symptomatology by emotional and attentional regulation |
topic | Basic Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8635621/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34868486 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2021.1995264 |
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