The role of canines in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a syndrome of prolonged stress reactions that can develop following a traumatic event. Treatment usually relies on both psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies. Recently, the use of dogs as adjunct intervention for a variety of psychiatric conditions has received widespread attention. The aim of this review was to systematically review the evidence for the use of dogs in the treatment of PTSD. METHOD A systematic search was conducted using multiple specialist and generalist databases. Articles targeted were those examining the effects of dogs in the treatment of PTSD. Inclusion criteria were peer review, that participants had a formal diagnosis of PTSD, and that the experimental intervention involved a dog. There were no restrictions on subpopulation, exact type or role of dog, or country or language of publication. RESULTS 16 papers met the inclusion criteria. All of the included studies examined veterans. Methods and results were widely heterogeneous between studies, making it infeasible to quantify an overall effect size. Multiple studies demonstrated promising results when dogs were used as an adjunct intervention to standard therapy, particularly in symptom reduction and social functioning. However, risk of bias was an issue for most of the studies. While the results in most of the studies were overall promising, the risk of biases and veteran subpopulation limit the validity and generalizability of the results. CONCLUSIONS At best, the current evidence raises the hypothesis that dogs are beneficial in PTSD. Further research is required with a focus on rigorous design. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).