Assistance dog placements and roles have grown rapidly in recent decades, especially in the United States, Canada, and Europe [2]. PLOS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation, #C2354500, based in San Francisco, California, US. Thorough reporting in terms of the magnitude and variability of effects observed will allow researchers to make informed comparisons across populations and interventions and conduct critically needed meta-analyses in the field. However, results suggested that for most outcomes, having an assistance dog had no effect on psychosocial health and wellbeing. Similarly, Crudden et al. In longitudinal studies, the first follow-up time point varied from 3- to 12-months after receiving an assistance dog. The most notable weaknesses included a lack of adequate reporting in the methodological sections, which not only limits interpretation of findings but prevents reproducibility. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, a United States law, an assistance dog must do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability in order to receive public access rights [4]. Advantages Useful Findings. Six comparisons were made to measure the effect of having an assistance dog on clinical measures of depression or anxiety. A total of 30% of comparisons made were positive in which having an assistance dog was associated with improved psychosocial functioning among individuals with disabilities. Research in the field of human-animal interaction (HAI) and assistance dogs is not only rapidly growing but is often disparately published across multidisciplinary journals and outlets. A health information specialist (JY) constructed and executed comprehensive search strategies in six electronic databases: MEDLINE (PubMed platform), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) (EBSCOhost platform), ERIC (EBSCOHost), Web of Science Core Collection (Web of Science), PsycINFO (EBSCOhost), and PsycARTICLES (EBSCOhost). While both reviews found mostly positive findings regarding mobility, guide, and hearing dogs effects on their handlers health and wellbeing, social interactions, and activity participation [7, 8], it was concluded that the small number of studies and methodological limitations of these studies preclude any clear conclusions [8]. Using another measure of energy and fatigue, Craft [40] found no difference in those with or without a mobility service dog. To date, there have been several reviews summarizing the literature on the psychosocial effects of assistance dogs on their handlers. For full functionality of this site, please enable JavaScript. In addition to the different human and dog phenotypes that contribute to this heterogeneity, there are likely differences in the strength of the human-animal bond and attachment relationships formed between assistance dogs and handlers [19, 76]. r/psychology How to get your children to eat more fruits and vegetables: Children will eat more fruits and vegetables if families take more time to eat meals. For example, the benefits of an assistance dog for a socially isolated individual who experiences periodic anxiety and depression may be significantly different than an individual without these characteristics. The three Rs are: Reduction, Refinement . Alan M. Beck, [15] found no difference in self-esteem, adequacy, or competency over 12-months following receiving a mobility service dog. The remaining four longitudinal studies assessed participants 35 times with final follow-up ranging from 924 months after receiving an assistance dog. Visual display of methodological ratings for N = 27 studies ordered by the number of studies addressing each item. When human studies are presented, there is rarely discussion of the basic animal research that enabled those studies to be done. In particular, not only did studies vary largely in terms of sample size, but they also varied in the manner in which statistical analyses were conducted. Only 6/27 (22%) reported any estimates of effect size in their results. Studies are organized by design (longitudinal or cross-sectional). Guide dogs were only assessed in four studies (all of which were cross-sectional, and one of which was an unpublished thesis [46]). The authors found three studies reporting an association between having a seizure alert or response dog and improvements to quality of life and wellbeing, concluding a need for more research. He received his PhD in comparative psychology from the University of California at Davis in 1982, and was a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychobiology in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. These studies were reviewed to complete three specific aims: to describe the key characteristics of studies, to evaluate the methodological rigor of studies, and to summarize outcomes. Dr. Therefore, the current literature is limited to correlational, rather than causal conclusions regarding the benefits of assistance dogs on the psychosocial health of their owners. Other studies found increased social connectedness 3-months after receiving a mobility or hearing dog [31] and increased community integration 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after receiving a mobility service dog [14]. Finally, most studies (21/27;78%) compared outcomes to a control or comparison condition. Studies made an average of 5.4 statistical comparisons on psychosocial outcomes, ranging from 115 comparisons. Learning and language theories.An interesting insight into the animal world DisadvantagesThe Ethics of animal testing. Of 58 total psychological outcomes, 21 (37%) were positive (improved or better psychological health in comparison to pre- or control conditions), 37 (63%) were null (no difference), and zero (0%) were negative (decreased or worse functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions). Part of that approval process requires the scientist to identify whether there might be less invasive ways to do the same thing. Future longitudinal research in this population is necessary to understand the complex psychosocial and physical roles that guide dogs play in the lives of their handlers. Animal experimentation, also called animal testing, has contributed to many important scientific and medical discoveries. Second, only 63% of studies described inclusion and/or exclusion criteria of recruited participants, and some studies did not report all demographic or disability characteristics of participants. [32] found no difference in occupational functioning 7-months after receiving a mobility service dog and Milan [41] found no group difference in those with and without a mobility service dog. Specifically, this review sought to systematically identify, summarize, and evaluate studies assessing psychosocial outcomes from owning an assistance dog (including service, guide, hearing, and/or medical alert or response dogs) with measures tested for reliability and validity among individuals with physical disabilities. Most articles were published in the 2010s, indicating an increasing publication interest in this topic over time. The search strategy was adapted to the other databases, including mapping terms to each databases thesaurus or prescribed vocabulary, as appropriate. While results described positive effects of service dogs in terms of social, psychological, and functional benefits for their handlers, it was concluded that all 12 of the studies had weak study designs with limitations including lack of comparison groups, inadequate description of the service dog intervention, and nonstandardized outcome measures. Thus, this pattern may be better explained by the file drawer effect in which there is a bias towards publishing positive findings over null findings [79]. Another potential reason for the inconsistencies in findings from studies assessing the same construct is disparities across standardized measures. The study of nonhuman animals has actually played a huge role in psychology, and it continues to do so today. Human participants in these studies included those with hearing or visual impairments, diabetes, and seizure disorders. Only Vincent et al. In results sections, 15/21 studies with a control or comparison condition (71%) demonstrated that participants in each condition were comparable on demographic variables. However, even within a single category, there are differences in assistance dog breeds, temperaments, and training that may significantly contribute to observed variance across studies. Data Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files. However, Lundqvist et al. psychiatric service dogs for posttraumatic stress disorder or autism spectrum disorder). The scientific rigor of each study was rated according to a 5-level system while the methodological quality of each study was scored on a 7-point scale. purpose-bred from a provider, self-trained) and breeds (e.g., Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Mixes). In terms of general vitality and energy, four studies used the SF-36 to measure the effect of having an assistance dog on the vitality domain. Because medical service dogs are a relatively new category of assistance dog placements [2], there has been less research on the psychosocial effects of medical alert and response service dogs on their handlers. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0243302, Editor: Geilson Lima Santana, University of Sao Paulo Medical School, BRAZIL, Received: July 22, 2020; Accepted: November 18, 2020; Published: December 2, 2020. Unfortunately, many introductory textbooks dont give the full picture of animal research. The three Rs are a set of principles that scientists are encouraged to follow in order to reduce the impact of research on animals. Discuss the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Use of Animals for psychological Research. This means that any studies on animals cannot be accurately related to humans, making them invalid. However, increasingly modern methods allow the 3R principle of reducing, refining and replacing animal experiments to be put into practice . While there are no legal requirements specifying that an assistance dog must be certified, registered, or receive any specialized training to receive public access rights, independent organizations such as ADI, the International Association of Assistance Dog Partners (IAADP), and the International Guide Dog Federation (IGDF) define a set of minimum training and behavior standards for public access that help guide the assistance dog industry. Other countries where studies took place included Canada (3), Japan (2), New Zealand (1), and Sweden (1). Lack of control: Another downside is that the experimenter cannot control for outside variables. In the economic domain of the CHART, which assesses socio-economic independence, Davis [44] again found that those with a mobility service dog reported worse economic functioning than controls while two mobility dog studies reported null findings [30, 41]. The research community tries to mitigate some of the harms by insuring, for example, that the animals psychological well-being is optimized; in fact, there is a large body of psychological research that focuses on animal welfare and identifying best practices to house and care for animals in captivity. Six studies used standardized measures to assess general health and health symptoms, three of which [17, 28, 35] reported null findings on the general health domain of the RAND 36-Item Short Form Health Survey [SF-36; 47]. We found that most studies were conducted in either the United States or the United Kingdom, but there was international representation of the research in Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, and Japan. In addition, we can better understand fundamental processes because of the precise control enabled by animal research (e.g., living environments, experimental conditions, etc.). Of 147 comparisons, 44 (30%) were positive (improved or better functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions), 100 (68%) were null (no observed difference), and 3 (2%) were negative (decreased or worse functioning in comparison to pre- or control conditions). However, when more than one few companies uses the same resources and provide competitive parity are also known as rare resources. Finally, in discussion sections, most studies (22/27; 81%) stated at least two limitations of their study. Hall et al. An important question for the field moving forward will be to determine for whom an assistance dog may confer the most significant psychosocial health benefits for, and under what contexts or conditions. Longitudinal studies have found that individuals report improvements to their emotional wellbeing, social functioning, and quality of life just 3 to 6 months after receiving an assistance dog [1315]. See our A-Level Essay Example on The studies carried out by Milgram, Piliavin, Haney and Gardner & Gardner, have unearthed some very important as well as surprising details about human behaviour and experience which in nearly all situation affects it., Social Psychology now at Marked By Teachers. A study protocol was designed a-priori to define the search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and items for data extraction. e0243302. In the case of disagreements, inclusion or exclusion was resolved by discussion and consultation with a third independent reviewer (author MO). Unfortunately, many introductory textbooks don't give the full picture of animal research. After removing duplicate articles in EndNote following a validated protocol [23], articles were screened based on their title and abstract. They argue that all life is sacred and animals go through a lot of distress during experiments in which they involuntarily take part. Lorenz, animal studies of attachment: Lorenz's research investigates the Evolutionary Explanation of attachment suggesting that infants are pre-programmed to form an attachment from the second that they are born. They have advantages and disadvantages compared with other approaches. We found that similar to the range of study characteristics observed, there was considerable variation in the methodological rigor of included studies. The results of Harlow's experiments indicated that this early maternal deprivation led to serious and irreversible emotional damage. Four studies found no effect of having a hearing dog [29] or mobility service dog [39, 41] on the UCLA Loneliness Scale. Summary of psychological outcomes across N = 27 studies ordered by sub-category, then by standardized measure. Animal research continues to play a vital role in psychology, enabling discoveries of basic psychological and physiological processes that are important for living healthy lives. S1 Table. The lack of guide dog-specific research is especially surprising given that guide dogs not only have the longest history of any type of assistance dog [61] but are also the most commonly placed assistance dog placed by professional facilities worldwide [2]. The most common provider organizations represented were Canine Companions for Independence (CCI; six mobility service dog studies), Paws with a Cause (four mobility service dog studies), and Hearing Dogs for Deaf People (HDDP; four hearing dog studies). Ironically, those animals that are likely to be the best models for psychopathology are also likely to be considered the . Most studies reported adequate detail on participant demographics such as age and sex or gender identity (23/27; 85%) as well as disability characteristics such as primary diagnoses or severity (22/27; 81%). Study designs included both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, with only one randomized longitudinal study identified [14]. Although this tendency occurs in many fields, the file-drawer bias may especially be prevalent in human-animal interaction research due to the preconceived notion that animals are beneficial for humans [80]. Of 27 studies, 20 (74%) assessed a psychological outcome with a total of 24 different standardized measures. Last updated 22 Mar 2021. Researchers who study nonhumans recognize that their studies may involve certain harms that can range from the relatively minor (e.g., drawing a blood sample) to the more serious (e.g., neurosurgery). He is currently the chair of APAs Committee on Animal Research and Ethics. Importantly, unpublished theses had a similar average sample size as published studies, with similar power to detect effects compared to published studies. Promising areas include psychological wellbeing, emotional wellbeing, and social participation in which several positive outcomes were identified. The systematic literature review was conducted according to The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [21]. Seven studies (26%) had sample sizes less than or equal to N = 20, all of which were longitudinal. Inconsistencies in findings were discussed in terms of wide variability in assessment times, interventions, measures, and rigor, and recommendations were made to contribute to the knowledge of this growing application of the human-animal bond. In addition, many studies did not account for confounding variables such as having a pet dog, the progressiveness or type of disability, or relationship status. A total of 13 mental health outcomes were assessed in which 4 (31%) were significant across group or condition. Probably not, in much the same way that nonhuman research that permitted a significant human study to be conducted is rarely described in todays textbooks. Disadvantages of Animal Experimentation Ethical concerns Animals have to die for our research May be considered to be cruel Animal testing may not be acceptable regarding religious aspects Humans should not play god Animal testing can be expensive Animal experimentation may lead to the development of new diseases May be done in an excessive manner

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