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Pets for Depression and Health

Can your depression problems improve when you interact with your pet?
By
WebMD Feature
Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Traffic was unbearable, the workday was long, and the boss unreasonable. But minutes later, as your pet dog wags his tail and yips his welcome, your symptoms of depression lift.

It's not a coincidence, according to psychologists, veterinarians, and researchers, who concur that pets can be good for our mental and physical health. A pet can't cure symptoms of depression, of course, nor is a pet a substitute for medication or talk therapy. But a pet can help to improve mild or moderate depression in many people, experts agree, as well as provide other benefits, such as better sleep and overall health.

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Pets and Depression: What Therapists Say

Pets offer psychological and physical comfort, says Teri Wright, PhD, a psychologist in Santa Ana, Calif., who keeps a parakeet and two hamsters in her office to break the ice with children she treats -- but finds that adults like them, too.

Pets, she says, "just feel good to hold on to." Psychologically, she says, "they make you feel important, like you matter." How, for instance, could you not feel better when your dog wags his tail and pants upon your return, even if you've just returned from a half-hour errand?

Wright has two guinea pigs, Dex (for Dexedrine, the ADHD drug) and Zac (short for Prozac), and feels pretty important when they squeal upon her return home. "No one else gives them parsley," she says of their favorite snack.

The Power of Pets for Improving Your Mood and Health

The power of pets in improving mood can be summed up in two words, says Alan Entin, PhD, a psychologist in Richmond, Va.: "Unconditional love."

Dogs, in particular, are always glad to see you, he notes. "When you are feeling down and out, the puppy just starts licking you, being with you, saying with his eyes, 'You are the greatest.' When an animal is giving you that kind of attention, you can't help but respond by improving your mood and playing with it."

Besides unconditional love, a pet relieves loneliness, Entin points out. Depression and loneliness can go together as people withdraw.  "For many people pets are the only relatives they have. It relieves their loneliness. People with animals tend to relate to them and they feel better."

Having a pet takes the focus off the owner's problems, Entin says, since having a pet is a commitment--you need to feed and care for the pet. "When people have a pet in the house, it forces them to take care of another life," Entin says. With the focus outward, he says, the pet owner may not dwell on their depressed mood as much.

The pet doesn't have to be a dog or a cat. British psychiatrist Camilla Haw, in fact, recommends pet parrots as ideal pets for some patients with symptoms of depression. "I have kept pet parrots for 20 years and can recommend them for the house bound, the lonely and patients with depression, especially middle-aged women suffering from the 'empty nest syndrome,'" she writes in Psychiatric Bulletin. The birds can be loyal, loving, and provide good companionship, she says.

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