Treating Agitation in Patients with Dementia with a Therapy Dog in a Milieu Therapy Setting on a Geropsychiatric Ward

Background: Animal-assisted intervention has become a common therapeutic practice used for patients with dementia in home-dwelling and institutions. The most established procedure is a visiting service by specially trained dogs and their owners to improve social interactions and reduce symptoms of agitation. Objectives: The study aims to investigate the effects of a therapy dog on agitation of inpatients with dementia in a gerontopsychiatric ward. Materials and Methods: The severity of agitation was assessed by a rater blinded for the presence of the dog via the Overt Agitation Severity Scale (OASS). The scale was conducted on 1 day with the dog and his handler present (resident doctor on the ward) and on another day with only the handler present. Each patient was his/her own control. Heart rate variability (HRV) and serum level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) of the patients were measured on both days. 26 patients with the Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) score <21 and the diagnosis of dementia were included in the study. Results: A significant reduction of agitation in the OASS could be shown when the dog was present ( p = 0.006). The data neither demonstrated a difference in the HRV for the parameters mean heart rate ( p = 0.65), root mean square of successive differences ( p = 0.63), and high frequencies ( p = 0.27) nor in serum BDNF concentrations ( p = 0.42). Discussion: Therapy dogs can be implemented as a therapeutic tool in a gerontopsychiatric ward to reduce symptoms of agitation in patients with dementia. The study was registered in the German Clinical Trials Register (DRKS00024093).