111REVIEW OF ANIMAL ASSISTED THERAPY WITH VISITING DOGS IN DEMENTIA

Abstract

Introduction: Dementia is complex clinical syndrome, which is progressive and irreversible and is associated with significant effect on mental function. Behavioural and Psychological symptoms of dementia are complex, having impact not only on the patients, but also their carers. (NICE Guidelines,2016). Treatment of Dementia is complex and is associated with side effects. Animal assisted therapy has been found to help evoke awareness of the patient's past and help connect with inner feelings. (Swall et al., 2014) Objective: The objective of this review is to look at current evidence in the use of visiting dogs in dementia as of 31st March 2017. Method(s): Database searches involving six relevant databases of CINAHL, Psychinfo, Cochrane Database, British Nursing Index and AMED was conducted. Also, manual searches were done based on references. MESH words were used. This yielded 28 studies. All selected studies were critically reviewed. Only Quantitative studies in English language were studied. Finding(s): Total number of participants in the study varied between 4 and 124. Women outnumbered men except in 2 of the studies. Most of these studies were undertaken in the nursing and residential homes. Most studies were done in North America followed by Europe. Most studies used large dogs. Retrievers and Retriever crosses were the most common breeds used. Duration of study varied between 3 minutes to 3 hours with most studies having duration of 60-90 minutes. Also, duration of studies ranged between 4 days and 1 year. Result(s): Depression: There was positive effect on depression with animal assisted therapy in most studies; Agitation: Most studies showed a positive benefit on agitation following animal assisted therapy; Anxiety: There was no definitive benefit noticed with therapy; Quality of life scores: This showed a positive benefit with therapy; Social functioning: there was improved social functioning noted with animal assisted therapy; Hallucinations: there was no benefit noted with hallucinations after animal assisted therapy; Passive Behaviour and apathy: Studies showed positive correlation with these symptoms; Cognition: There were mixed results as regards to cognition; Diurnal rhythm disturbances: There were mixed results as regards to diurnal variation of symptoms; Medication use: No significant differences were demonstrated with animal assisted therapy; Caregiver burden: Caregiver stress had decreased following animal assisted therapy. Limitation(s): there were only 7 RCTs and each looked at a different domain. Conclusion(s): Dog assisted therapy could have a positive effects on some aspects of dementia. Further randomised control trials are needed.