In fact, nine new articles were identified (three theses, six publications) that had been published since the last review on this topic in 2012 [9]. The only other positive outcome was from Allen et al. This pattern suggests a potential publication bias present in which disproportionately more positive findings are in the published studies than the unpublished theses [78]. The authors found three studies reporting an association between having a seizure alert or response dog and improvements to quality of life and wellbeing, concluding a need for more research. found significantly lower depression and anxiety using the POMS and GHQ-30, respectively, 6-months after receiving a hearing dog [13]. Of 27 studies, 15 were cross-sectional and 12 were longitudinal. How Comparative Psychologists Study Animal Behavior - Verywell Mind However, it is of note that several methodological weaknesses of the studies make it difficult to draw any definitive conclusions, including inadequate reporting and a failure to account for moderating or confounding variables. The complete MEDLINE search strategy, which was adapted for the other databases, is shown in S1 Table. PLoS ONE 15(12): Grey literature was addressed by searching ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest) and WorldCatDissertations and hand searching the abstracts of the International Society for Anthrozoology and International Association of Human Animal Interactions Organizations conferences. Compared to those on the waitlist, individuals with an assistance dog report better psychosocial functioning and wellbeing [16, 17]. To summarize study outcomes, extracted items included statistical comparisons for any psychosocial outcomes from included studies. In longitudinal studies, the first follow-up time point varied from 3- to 12-months after receiving an assistance dog. He received his PhD in comparative psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1982, and was a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychobiology in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. After the initial title and abstract review, articles were screened based on full text. Inability to draw cause-and-effect conclusions: The biggest disadvantage of naturalistic observation is that determining the exact cause of a subject's behavior can be difficult. (2017, January 1). BBC - Ethics - Animal ethics: Experimenting on animals Regarding social participation, 14 comparisons were made in which 4/14 were significant (29%). Ten years from now, students may very well read in their textbooks about a new treatment to help people with Parkinsons disease. S1 Table. You can learn more about some of this research, as well as the ethical and regulatory issues that are involved, by consulting online resources such as Speaking of Research. An iterative, multi-stage trajectory for developing animal models and assessing their quality is proposed. Of 58 total psychological outcomes, 21 (37%) were positive (improved or better psychological health in comparison to pre- or control conditions), 37 (63%) were null (no difference), and zero (0%) were negative (decreased or worse functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions). [32] found no difference in occupational functioning 7-months after receiving a mobility service dog and Milan [41] found no group difference in those with and without a mobility service dog. This practice was instrumental in our evolution and in the emergence of civilization. The authors concluded that although results are promising, conclusions drawn from the results must be considered with caution [9]. In parallel with an increasing amount of research quantifying the therapeutic benefits of companion dogs and therapy dogs on human health and wellbeing [5, 6], there has been an increased focus on quantifying the physical, psychological, and social effects that assistance dogs may have on their handlers [79]. Medical service dogs for diabetes and seizure alert/response were rarely studied [16, 35], and were assessed in conjunction with mobility service dogs rather than on their own. Two of the most well-known animal studies were conducted by Konrad Lorenz and Harry Harlow. This systematic review summarized the current state of knowledge regarding the effects of owning an assistance dog (including service, guide, hearing, and/or medical alert or response dogs) on standardized outcomes of psychosocial health and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities. [35] found increased functioning 3-months after receiving a mobility, hearing, or medical service dog, while Shintani et al. Rintala et al. Using another measure of energy and fatigue, Craft [40] found no difference in those with or without a mobility service dog. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. However, other studies reported no relationship between having a mobility service dog and self-esteem via the RSES [39, 41] or other standardized measures of self-esteem [15, 28, 36]. route finding, retrieving dropped items, alerting to a seizure), the assistance dogs companionship, emotional and social support, and social facilitation effects in public may be particularly salient to improving the quality of life of individuals with disabilities [79]. Most studies (24/27; 89%) assessed outcomes from a single type of assistance dog (e.g. Animal studies in psychology. For example, without any animal research, effective treatments for human conditions like Alzheimers disease may very well be found, but it would certainly take decades longer to find them, and in the meantime, millions and millions of additional people would suffer. But, was then later tested on a human and the human died. Table 4 summarizes the social outcomes across studies within the sub-categories of general social functioning, loneliness, and social participation. This means that any studies on animals cannot be accurately related to humans, making them invalid. Finally, Rodriguez et al. A health information specialist (JY) constructed and executed comprehensive search strategies in six electronic databases: MEDLINE (PubMed platform), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) (EBSCOhost platform), ERIC (EBSCOHost), Web of Science Core Collection (Web of Science), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), and PsycARTICLES (EBSCOhost). Of 147 comparisons, 44 (30%) were positive (improved or better functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions), 100 (68%) were null (no observed difference), and 3 (2%) were negative (decreased or worse functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions). mobility or guide), thus restricting human participants to a single category of impairments. Kerri E. Rodriguez, This occurred by either matching groups on select criteria or statistically comparing groups demographic characteristics before performing main analyses. Other studies found no effect of having a mobility service dog on quality of life including more specific measures such as physical and environmental quality of life [33, 34]. Plants lack a nervous system and therefore cannot be used to learn about psycho- logical phenomena. In fact, positive, null, and negative findings are equally instrumental in understanding the complexities of the role that assistance dogs play in the lives of individuals with physical disabilities. The remaining studies were quasi-experimental in that they did not use randomized assignment to treatment or control groups. Marguerite E. OHaire, Affiliation: Most studies reported adequate detail on participant demographics such as age and sex or gender identity (23/27; 85%) as well as disability characteristics such as primary diagnoses or severity (22/27; 81%). Table 5 displays all quality of life outcomes across studies within the sub-categories of overall quality of life, life satisfaction, and independence. The rhesus monkey connectome predicts disrupted functional networks resulting from pharmacogenetic inactivation of the amygdala. The effects of assistance dogs on psychosocial health and - PLOS In terms of general social functioning, 2/10 comparisons made were significant. Using a new technique, it is now possible to temporarily inactivate the amygdala in a monkey and see how other brain areas (including those that are not directly connected to the amygdala) change their activity (Grayson et al., 2016). A study protocol was designed a-priori to define the search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and items for data extraction. Most longitudinal studies (8/12) assessed participants at two time points: at baseline prior to receiving an assistance dog, and an average of 5.8 +/- 3.3 months after participants received an assistance dog (range of 312 months follow-up). The process of animal model building, development and evaluation has rarely been addressed systematically, despite the long history of using animal models in the investigation of neuropsychiatric disorders and behavioral dysfunctions. [16] found that those with a mobility or medical service dog reported significantly higher work/school functioning than a control group. Studies compared outcomes of individuals with an assistance dog to before they received the dog (six longitudinal studies), to participants on the waitlist to receive an assistance dog (five longitudinal and seven cross-sectional studies), or to participants without an assistance dog (eight cross-sectional studies). t, F, or B values) and only 55% (15/27) of studies reported exact probability values from analyses. We found that studies reported mostly psychological outcomes (74%), followed by social outcomes (67%), quality of life outcomes (70%), and vitality (26%) outcomes. APA 2023 registration is now open! This page has been archived and is no longer being updated regularly. However, three studies collapsed analyses across several types of assistance dogs and impairments. Why is animal psychology important? As the assistance dog itself is the key component of the intervention, details regarding the dogs breeding, rearing, selection, and training, as well as the assistance dog-handler matching process are critical to disentangling potential mechanisms [75]. broad scope, and wide readership a perfect fit for your research every time. Discuss the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Use of Animals for psychological Research. The results of Harlow's experiments indicated that this early maternal deprivation led to serious and irreversible emotional damage. Six studies used standardized measures to assess general health and health symptoms, three of which [17, 28, 35] reported null findings on the general health domain of the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey [SF-36; 47]. Many studies did not confirm that participants across groups were statistically equivalent on key demographic variables such as age and sex/gender before conducting statistical analyses. Average age across all studies was 42 +/- 13 years old. As research on the assistance animal-handler relationship continues to increase, there is a need for an updated, comprehensive collation of the literature encompassing studies on the effects of all varieties of assistance dogs (guide dogs, hearing dogs, and both mobility and medical service dogs) including both published studies and unpublished theses and dissertations. In addition to the different human and dog phenotypes that contribute to this heterogeneity, there are likely differences in the strength of the human-animal bond and attachment relationships formed between assistance dogs and handlers [19, 76]. Animal Studies Of Attachment: Lorenz And Harlow - Psychology Hub This research aimed to conduct a systematic assessment of the current state of knowledge regarding the potential benefits of assistance dogs on standardized outcomes of the health and wellbeing of individuals with disabilities. Evaluation of animal models of neurobehavioral disorders Visual display of methodological ratings for N = 27 studies ordered by the number of studies addressing each item. Only 5/27 studies (19%) described dogs breeds and sources. Studies are often described without specifying that they were animal studies. Importantly, unpublished theses had a similar average sample size as published studies, with similar power to detect effects compared to published studies. Still, some harms will remain, and ethically, one must weigh those harms against the potential benefits (for humans and for the animals themselves) to be obtained from the research. Disadvantages of animal studies in psychology, are the finest-quality pictures of lovely, adorable animals that we have gathered for you and Friend. Three Blind Mice, See How They Run: A Critique of Behavioral Research Our first aim was to describe study characteristics of the literature. For the study of most cognitive functions, lesion studies in animals have and will likely continue to provide insights that cannot be obtained through research on humans. What does an animal psychologist do? - n4vu.com Specifically, this review sought to systematically identify, summarize, and evaluate studies assessing psychosocial outcomes from owning an assistance dog (including service, guide, hearing, and/or medical alert or response dogs) with measures tested for reliability and validity among individuals with physical disabilities. While there are no legal requirements specifying that an assistance dog must be certified, registered, or receive any specialized training to receive public access rights, independent organizations such as ADI, the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP), and the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) define a set of minimum training and behavior standards for public access that help guide the assistance dog industry. In the mobility domain, only Milan [41] found a significant effect of having a mobility service dog on the CHART mobility domain (which includes hours per day out of bed and days per week out of the house) while Davis [44] and Rintala et al. However, 2 studies found worse occupational functioning in terms of employment, schooling, or homemaking. To be sure, each species has its own specializations that enable it to fit into its unique ecological niche; but common ancestry results in structural (e.g., brain) and functional (e.g., memory) processes that are remarkably similar between humans and nonhumans. For example, the benefits of an assistance dog for a socially isolated individual who experiences periodic anxiety and depression may be significantly different than an individual without these characteristics. The remaining four longitudinal studies assessed participants 35 times with final follow-up ranging from 924 months after receiving an assistance dog. [35] found higher health-related quality of life 3-months after receiving a mobility, hearing, or medical service dog on one of three measures used [EuroQol Visual Analog Scale; 56]. Six comparisons were made to measure the effect of having an assistance dog on clinical measures of depression or anxiety. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243302, Editor: Geilson Lima Santana, University of Sao Paulo Medical School, BRAZIL, Received: July 22, 2020; Accepted: November 18, 2020; Published: December 2, 2020. [45] found higher health-related quality of life among those with a mobility service dog compared to a control group, but not among those with a hearing dog. A main weakness of animal studies is that animals have a different physiology to humans. To date, there have been several reviews summarizing the literature on the psychosocial effects of assistance dogs on their handlers. The three Rs are a set of principles that scientists are encouraged to follow in order to reduce the impact of research on animals. Summary of methodological rating scores by each of the N = 27 individual studies. Measures of the same outcome not only can have different wording and items, but also can measure functioning over different time periods or contexts. These are important issues that deserve better understanding and broader discussion. Of the 100 null comparisons, 43 (43%) were from published papers and 57 (57%) were from unpublished theses. Lorenz, animal studies of attachment: Lorenz's research investigates the Evolutionary Explanation of attachment suggesting that infants are pre-programmed to form an attachment from the second that they are born. For full functionality of this site, please enable JavaScript. Finally, one of the most notable examples of poor methodological reporting across studies was the omission of information regarding assistance dogs sources (e.g. Interestingly, only one included study [16] assessed outcomes from participants under the age of 18. Hall et al. Research on non-human primates, for instance, continues to offer valuable perspectives into the causes and evolution of individual, social, and reproductive human actions. Another potential reason for the inconsistencies in findings from studies assessing the same construct is disparities across standardized measures. Alan M. Beck, In these studies, positive findings (i.e., better social functioning in those with an assistance dog compared to a control group) may be partially attributed to an unmeasured variable driving the group difference [77]. As a final consideration, it is possible that assistance dogs may not confer significant psychosocial benefits as quantified by some of the standardized measures used. Thus, this pattern may be better explained by the file drawer effect in which there is a bias towards publishing positive findings over null findings [79].
