Pets Reduce Need for Post-Op Meds

Our friendly neighborhood golden retriever JoJo has a new “job,” I recently learned… he and his owner are a pet therapy team at the local hospital, making rounds a few times a week to see patients staying overnight or longer. I thought that was a nice thing for them to do when I heard about it — and I’m even more impressed now that I’ve seen research affirming that JoJo’s work really can make a difference… so much so, in fact, that I think doctors ought to write prescriptions for it. In one trial, people who spent time with dogs while recovering from surgery needed significantly less pain medication than those who did not.

Who Let the Dogs In?

At Edward Hospital in Naperville, Illinois, investigators measured the impact of dog visits on how much pain medication patients required after total joint replacement surgery, collecting data on 87 patients who received five- to 15-minute dog visits and an equal number of patients who chose not to receive the visits.

Factoring in a range of variables, including age, gender and length of hospital stay, researchers found that…

• Patients who received dog visits required half as much pain medication as those who didn’t.
• The timing of visits (morning, afternoon or evening) didn’t matter.
• The largest difference between the groups was on the first and second post-op day.

Julia Havey, RN, of Loyola University Health System, presented these results at the 18th Annual Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology and the First Human Animal Interaction Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, in November 2009.

Prescription for Healing: A Pet

Of course, it won’t come as a surprise to any pet owner that “animal-assisted therapy has a positive effect on patients’ psychosocial, emotional and physical well-being,” as Havey explains. She told me that previous research has demonstrated that friendly animal interactions can lower stress and blood pressure… improve immune system function… distract you from your pain and illness… increase your sense of well-being… and decrease loneliness. Also important — this medical intervention is inexpensive and very safe.

Sometimes a simple touch is what’s missing in modern technological settings, muses Havey. Petting a dog or cat can fill this void, so it is good to hear that more and more hospitals, nursing homes and other types of health-care facilities are instituting pet therapy for patients who are open to giving it a try. Pet therapy is not just sweet, it’s also healing in its own right.