Survey of Migraine Sufferers with Dogs to Evaluate for Canine Migraine-Alerting Behaviors

Abstract

Objectives: Anecdotal reports suggest that changes in dog behavior might be used to predict impending migraine episodes. This survey was designed to investigate how companion dogs react to migraines that occur in their owners. Design: Online survey was available from January 4-31, 2012. Settings/location: Survey was conducted through SurveyMonkey, with links to the survey posted at Migraine.com and promoted through social media. Subjects: Adults ‡ 18 years old who experience migraine episodes and live with a dog were eligible to participate. Interventions and outcome measures: Participants completed an 18-question online survey that asked about participant demographics, migraines, and their dog's behavior before or during migraine episodes. Results: The survey was completed by 1029 adult migraineurs (94.9% women), with migraines typically occurring £ 8 days per month in 63.4% of participants. A recognized change in the dog's behavior prior to or during the initial phase of migraine was endorsed by 552 participants (53.7%), most commonly unusual attentiveness to the owner (39.9%). Among the 466 participants providing details about their dog's behavior with their migraines, 57.3% were able to identify dog alerting behavior before symptoms of a migraine attack would typically begin, with changes usually noticed within 2 hours before the onset of initial migraine symptoms. The dog's behavior was considered to be often or usually linked with the development of a migraine for 59.2% of migraineurs, and 35.8% of migraineurs endorsed beginning migraine treatments after the dog's behavior was recognized and before migraine symptoms had started. Participant demographics, migraine frequency, and breed of dog in the home were similar between the 470 participants with no alerting behavior endorsed and the 466 participants providing detailed alerting information. Conclusions: About one in four migraineurs living with a companion dog endorsed recognizing a change in their dog's behavior before recognizing initial symptoms of a migraine attack.

More is not Always Better: An Epidemiological Assessment of Migraine Frequency and the Impact on Relationships

“…In addition, there may have been other confounding factors, such as typical migraine duration, maximum pain severity, or severity of associated symptoms that might be important confounding factors. The predominance of females ≥ 35 years old in the current sample is similar to previous samples obtained through online surveys for migraine; [ 11 – 13 , 23 , 24 ], however, data may not be generalized to males or younger females with migraine. In addition, utilization a convenience online sample has potential inherent biases that may limit generalization to random community or patient samples.…”

“…A two-month time frame was selected for recruitment to permit sufficient time to make the survey available so that a broader sample might be selected through social media recruitment than a shorter duration survey. A two-month frame has been found in previous online surveys to obtain >1,000 participants, with survey participation typically decreasing substantially before two months are completed such that longer duration recruitment is not likely to substantially increase sample size [ 5 , 13 ]. Prior to initiation of this survey, this study was reviewed and approved by a local Institutional Review Board.…”

A New Understanding of Man’s Best Friend: A Proposed Contextual Model for the Exploration of Human–Animal Interaction Among Insecurely Attached Males

“…In the same vein, dogs have shown evidence for social referencing of their owner's facial expressions when encountering novel stimuli, utilizing the gaze as a means to process information and subsequently direct behavior (Merola et al 2011(Merola et al , 2012. Likewise, there is indication for dogs displaying migraine-alerting behaviors on behalf of human companions (Marcus and Bhowmick 2013); a dog's ability to discriminate the emotional expressions of human faces (Müller et al 2015), and a dogs' gaze being tuned to human communication (Téglás et al 2012). There is also recent support for the hypothesis that dogs are capable of showing empathy (Silva and de Sousa 2011), and empathic responses to strangers in distress (Custance and Mayer 2012), and even more intense reactions to their own human companion in the same condition.…”

Benefits of Therapy Dogs in Therapy and Diagnostics of Patients with Psychosocial and Health Difficulties

“…Osim u dijagnostici same bolesti, psi se mogu istrenirati da uoče i upozore vlasnika na napadaje i naglo pogoršanje simptoma. U istraživanju s osobama koje pate od migrene, više od polovice ih je izjavilo da ih njihov pas ljubimac promjenom svog ponašanja upozori na nadolazeću migrenu oko dva sata prije početka prvih simptoma (26). Veliki porast istraživanja koja se bave psima sposobnim da detektiraju i upozore svog vlasnika na nadolazeći epileptični napadaj 15 do 45 minuta prije samog napadaja dokazala su uspješnost pasa u ovoj vrsti detekcije kao i veliki porast u kvaliteti života kod vlasnika tih pasa (27,28).…”

“…Apart for diagnostics, dogs can also be trained to recognise and warn their owners of the onset of seizures and a sudden deterioration of symptoms. In a study of people suffering from migraine, more than half of the participants stated that their pet dog warned them by changing its behaviour about two hours before the first signs of a migraine attack (26). A big increase in studies dealing with dogs capable of detecting and warning their owners about emerging seizures 15 to 45 minutes before the onset proved that dogs were successful in that kind of detection as well as in increasing the quality of life of their owners (27,28).…”