Blanka Klimova, Josef Toman, and Kamil Kuca conducted an amazing research project exploring how animal therapy affects dementia patients and sumarized their findings in their paper "Effectiveness of the Dog Therapy for Patients with Dementia - A Systematic Review." Today, we will be taking a look into what they found.
The researchers began by introducing animal-assisted therapy:"Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) can be defined as a goal directed intervention in which an animal meeting specific criteria is an integral part of the treatment process. AAT is usually performed by health or human service providers ... The aim of AAT is to enhance physical, social, emotional, or cognitive functions in both healthy and unhealthy individuals and thus, contribute to the improvement of person’s well-being. AAT can take a form of individual or group interventions" ("Effectiveness of the Dog Therapy for Patients with Dementia - A Systematic Review").
Below are some of the benefits seen with dementia patients who were spent time on AAT.
Contributed to slightly higher physical activity
Could relieve the so-called sundown syndrome, reducing agitation, restlessness, disorientation and aggressive behavior
Could improve short-term memory and communication skills
Enhanced eating habits
Reduced loneliness
They finish off their findings with a conclusion that really encapsulates what they were able to learn with their research. "The findings of this study reveal that AAT may work as a beneficial and effective complementary treatment (especially in the area of behavioral and psychological symptoms) for patients with different degree of dementia severity if AAT is targeted at their specific needs and interests. Nevertheless, more research in the area of methodology for the implementation of AAT is necessary, as well as more research should be conducted with respect to the use of AAT for the improvement of cognitive functions in people with dementia" ("Effectiveness of the Dog Therapy for Patients with Dementia - A Systematic Review").
Their work to organize numerous resources and combine them into such an eloquent, concise study is phenomenal and will hopefully bring to light how animal-assisted therapy may aid many individuals in the future.
Links to the research paper:
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