Service Dogs for Veterans and Military Members With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Replication With the PTSD Checklist for DSM‐5

Abstract

Psychiatric service dogs are an emerging complementary intervention for veterans and military members with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Recent cross‐sectional studies have documented significant, clinically relevant effects regarding service dogs and PTSD symptom severity. However, these studies were conducted using the PTSD Checklist (PCL) for the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). The present study aimed to replicate and advance these findings using the latest version of the PCL for the fifth edition of the DSM (PCL‐5). Participants included 186 military members and veterans who had received a PTSD service dog (n = 112) or who were on the waitlist to receive one in the future (n = 74). A cross‐sectional design was used to investigate the association between having a service dog and PCL‐5 total and symptom cluster scores. After controlling for demographic variables, there was a significant association between having a service dog and lower PTSD symptom severity both in total, B = ‐14.52, p < .001, d = ‐0.96, and with regard to each symptom cluster, ps < .001, ds = ‐0.78 to ‐0.94. The results replicated existing findings using the largest sample size to date and the most recent version of the PCL. These findings provide additional preliminary evidence for the efficacy of service dogs as a complementary intervention for military members and veterans with PTSD and add to a growing body of foundational research serving to rationalize investment in the further clinical evaluation of this emerging practice.

Assistance dogs for military veterans with PTSD: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-synthesis

“…Interventions in all 41 articles consisted of placement with an assistance dog as opposed to another species of assistance animal (i.e., miniature horses). All articles referred to participants as veterans, with only one study mentioning active-duty service members being included within the sample [ 25 ]. The majority (66%, n = 19/29) of peer-reviewed literature on the topic of assistance dogs and veterans with PTSD was published between 2019–2021, and 100% of peer-reviewed publications on this topic are from the last 5 years (see Fig 2 ).…”

“…The majority of quantitative articles (80%, n = 16) reported outcomes relating to PTSD severity. Of these articles all but one (94%, n = 15) reported statistically significant positive results, i.e., that assistance dog interventions reduce PTSD symptom severity in one or more domains [ 6 , 18 , 25 , 41 , 43 , 47 – 54 ]. Given the repeat use of the PCL we performed a meta-analysis to better estimate the magnitude of this effect; the other self-report PTSD measure employed was the Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 (TSI-2), used in one study [ 52 ].…”

“…Where multiple articles reported results for the same study, data from only a single article (the article reporting results for the largest sample size) was used. To allow comparison between the different versions of the PTSD Checklist (PCL) used among the studies, an additional test-equating step was taken to crosswalk PCL Civilian (PCL-C), Specific (PCL-S), and Military (PCL-M) version scores to an equivalent PCL for DSM-5 (PCL-5) score based on an established procedure [ 25 , 26 ]. While this crosswalk has previously only been performed using the PCL-C, the PCL-S and PCL-M have the exact same number of questions with nearly identical wording, allowing for use of the same procedure.…”

“…(PCL-S), and Military (PCL-M) version scores to an equivalent PCL for DSM-5 (PCL-5) score based on an established procedure [25,26]. While this crosswalk has previously only been performed using the PCL-C, the PCL-S and PCL-M have the exact same number of questions with nearly identical wording, allowing for use of the same procedure.…”

Defining the PTSD Service Dog Intervention: Perceived Importance, Usage, and Symptom Specificity of Psychiatric Service Dogs for Military Veterans

“…However, groups did significantly differ in gender; participants on the waitlist were more likely to be female than those with a service dog (waitlist 66% male, service dog 81% male; X 2 = 6.59, p = 0.010). Groups significantly differed in PTSD symptom severity, with those on the waitlist reporting more severe PTSD symptoms than those with a service dog (waitlist PCL-5 M = 58.97, SD = 12.96, service dog M = 44.34, SD = 17.13; t = −6.62, p < 0.001; Jensen et al, 2020).…”