The study of service dogs for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: a scoping literature review

Abstract

The therapeutic application of human–animal interaction has gained interest recently. One form this interest takes is the use of service dogs as complementary treatment for veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Many reports on the positive effect of PTSD Service Dogs (PSDs) on veterans exist, though most are indirect, anecdotal, or based on self-perceived welfare by veterans. They therefore only give a partial insight into PSD effect. To gain a more complete understanding of whether PSDs can be considered an effective complementary treatment for PTSD, a scoping literature review was performed on available studies of PSDs. The key search words were ‘dog’, ’canine’, ‘veteran’, and ‘PTSD’. This yielded 126 articles, of which 19 matched the inclusion criteria (six empirical studies). Recurrent themes in included articles were identified for discussion of methodology and/or results. It was found that results from most included studies were either applicable to human–animal interaction in general or other types of service animals. They therefore did not represent PSDs specifically. Studies which did discuss PSDs specifically only studied welfare experience in veterans, but used different methodologies. This lead us to conclude there is currently no undisputed empirical evidence that PSDs are an effective complementary treatment for veterans with PTSD other than reports on positive welfare experience. Additionally, the lack of development standardization and knowledge regarding welfare of PSDs creates risks for both human and animal welfare. It is therefore recommended that a study on the effect of PSDs be expanded to include evaluation methods besides self-perceived welfare of assisted humans. Future studies could include evaluations regarding human stress response and functioning, ideally conducted according to validated scientific methodologies using objective measurement techniques to identify the added value and mechanisms of using PSDs to assist treatment of PTSD in humans.

A One Health Perspective on the Human–Companion Animal Relationship with Emphasis on Zoonotic Aspects

“…Animal-assisted therapies can act as co-therapies to facilitate psychotherapy or to provide specific types of therapeutic interventions such as improving motor skills or behavior [23]. Such interventions were effective in improving the state of children or adults with or at risk of developing mental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [38][39][40], and for the treatment of PTSD in military veterans [41,42].…”

Effectiveness of animal-assisted interventions for children and adults with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Integration of animals in treatment approaches for trauma-affected individuals is based on the observation of promising outcomes of AAI for a number of populations such as psychiatric patients (Hawkins, Hawkins, Dennis, Williams, & Lawrie, 2019;Rossetti & King, 2010), patients with autism spectrum disorders and behavioural difficulties (O'Haire, 2013;Trzmiel, Purandare, Michalak, Zasadzka, & Pawlaczyk, 2019) or people with cognitive impairments or dementia (Hu, Zhang, Leng, Li, & Chen, 2018;Zafra-Tanaka, Pacheco-Barrios, Tellez, & Taype-Rondan, 2019), although results are sometimes mixed. There is also an increasing number of studies investigating the effects of AAI for people who experienced trauma including patients with PTSD.…”

Do Service Dogs for Veterans with PTSD Mount a Cortisol Response in Response to Training?

“…Perhaps the best known of these dogs is the guide dog for humans with a visual disability. Other examples include dogs for those with a hearing impairment [ 5 ], dogs that detect low blood sugar [ 6 ], dogs that detect symptoms of epileptic seizure [ 7 ], dogs that assist with a physical disability [ 8 ], dogs that assist with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) [ 9 , 10 ], and dogs that assist those with a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [ 11 , 12 ].…”