“Get a Dog and Cut Your Pain Meds in Half”

Total joint-replacement surgery is usually accompanied by a pretty painful recovery period.  A paper given at the Conference of the International Society of Anthrozoology and the first Human-Animal Interaction Conference has proposed a way to reduce the usual consumption of pain pills during this time.  The study was done at Loyola University, Chicago.   

The press release from Loyola (see link) is tantalizing.  The claim is made that adults who use pet therapy after joint-replacement therapy require 50% less pain medication than those who don’t. But there’s no study data, just a cheerful sales talk for assistance dogs.  In Santa Fe, where I live, there’s a school for assistance dogs, and once a year we can see the graduation ceremony and practical demonstrations of the skills of the graduates.  And our local hospital patients benefit from visits from a number of assistance dogs.  So I don’t need any convincing of the benefits of these lovable nurses.  But I’d like to see more numbers showing just how much they help the joint-replacement patients.

Maybe the patients benefit from the additional exercise involved in getting up frequently to let the dog go outside?