Study finds strong bond with dogs helps reduce distress in women who have suffered trauma
In a study published recently in JAMA, Harvard University researchers found that pets, especially dogs, can help relieve anxiety and depression in women, especially those who have experienced childhood trauma. The researchers wanted to understand how attachment to pets can reduce depression and anxiety. Read on to learn more about the study.
Strong bond with dogs helps reduce distress in traumatized women
Strong bonds with pets, particularly dogs, may help relieve depression, according to researchers of a new US study. Worry And Depression in women, especially those who have experienced Childhood traumaThe study was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open and the researchers also included those from Harvard University.
The researchers said previous studies have looked at depression and anxiety in adult pet owners, but the findings have been “mixed.” However, actively engaging with pets has previously been studied to reduce levels of anxiety and depression in patients with HIV/AIDS and terminal cancer.
The researchers wanted to understand how attachment to pets could reduce depression and anxiety, and provide valuable insights for developing preventive and therapeutic strategies, particularly for those with an insecure attachment style due to childhood trauma.
The researchers also said that the positive impact of pets may be linked to the level of attachment and connection to pets rather than just owning them. They said a strong bond with pets was associated with an insecure human attachment style.
For the study, the researchers included 214 women whose average age was 60 years. About 73 percent of these women were victims of physical or sexual abuse in childhood. The authors used questionnaires to assess the women’s attachment to pets and conducted psychological tests to measure levels of anxiety and depression.
“Compared to participants with an attachment to dogs, participants with an attachment to cats were, on average, more likely to have experienced life-threatening events, and less likely to have experienced childhood abuse,” the researchers write.
The researchers also found that women with an attachment to cats generally scored higher on depression and anxiety and were more likely to show clinical symptoms than women with an attachment to dogs. However, overall, a greater attachment to dogs was associated with lower stress levels as well as lower anxiety and depression scores.
“Although not directly applicable to clinical practice, our results point to an important aspect of attachment to pets as a factor in improving the psychological well-being of particularly vulnerable owners, and will therefore also be valuable to clinicians,” the authors write.
The researchers said that in this innovative study, we found that greater attachment to pets, especially dogs, was significantly associated with reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression. These associations appeared even stronger in women with a history of physical and/or sexual abuse in childhood.
He said these results contribute to research about the complex nature and consequences of human-animal relationships among people who have developed an insecure human attachment style due to childhood trauma.
(With inputs from PTI)
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