[cougarnurse]

I have seen how pets improve patients when they are in LTC, so had to post this:

According to University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers, patients hospitalized with advanced heart failure can significantly benefit from short, 12-minute visits from volunteer canines. Results from their study suggested that interactions with man's best friend could lower cardiopulmonary pressures, harmful neurohormone and anxiety levels among hospitalized heart failure patients.

"This was the first randomized, controlled study to show that animal-assisted therapy can be used as an effective adjunct treatment to improve pulmonary function, decrease neuroendocrine levels and anxiety in acute and critically ill hospitalized patients with heart failure," said study lead author Kathie Cole, a clinical nurse at UCLA Medical Center and School of Nursing.

Researchers randomly divided 76 hospitalized heart-failure patients into three groups: one with 26 patients receiving visits from a dog and a human volunteer, one with 25 patients receiving a visit from only a volunteer, and the last group of 25 patients receiving no visit at all. During each 12-minute visit, the dog would lie on the end of the bed, facing the patient. The patient could then pet and talk to the dog.

The study revealed a 24 percent decrease in anxiety levels among the group who received visits from both the dog and the volunteer. Anxiety scores in patients who were visited by only a human volunteer dropped 10 percent.

Levels of the stress hormone epinephrine dropped an average of 17 percent in the dog-volunteer group and 2 percent in the volunteer-only group, while rising 7 percent in the control group.

Pulmonary capillary wedge, the measurement of left atrial pressure, dropped an average 10 percent for patients in the dog-volunteer group, an increased 3 percent in the volunteer-only group and 5 percent in the control group.

The levels of systolic pulmonary artery pressure, the pressure in the lungs, dropped in the volunteer-dog team group 5 percent during and 5 percent after the visits. In the other two groups, it rose during and after therapy.

"This study demonstrates that even a short-term exposure to dogs has beneficial physiological and psychosocial effects on patients who want it," Cole said. "This therapy warrants serious consideration as an adjunct to medical therapy in hospitalized heart failure patients. Dogs are a great comfort. They make people happier, calmer and feel more loved. That is huge when you are scared and not feeling well."

The study was published in the November 2007 issue of the American Journal of Critical Care. The full article, titled "Animal-Assisted Therapy in Patients Hospitalized With Heart Failure," is available online at American Journal of Critical Care.