Study: Embracing dogs may help in recovering from painful physical trauma.

Scientists in Germany have found that dogs can alleviate the feeling of pain during recovery from physical distress.
Dr. Heidi Maursberger, who conducted the new study in the Department of Psychology at Humboldt University in Berlin, said: “Social support from family and friends, although associated with beneficial health effects, does not always help in coping with pain.” “Therefore, we tested whether pet dogs provide a more beneficial source of support in painful situations than human companions.”

The study included two slightly different experiments that focused solely on physical pain and not emotional pain.

In the first experiment, 74 women completed the cold press task, which involved placing their hand or forearm in cold water, resulting in gradually increasing pain that ended with the voluntary withdrawal of the limb, either in the presence of their pet dog, a friend, or while they were alone.

In the second experiment, 50 other women completed the cold press task in the presence of an unfamiliar dog or a stranger, or while they were alone.

The dogs sat in a nearby corner, and there was no physical contact in the first experiment, but in the second experiment, the participants were allowed to pet the dogs.

In both experiments, the participants reported less pain with fewer “pain behaviors,” such as jaw clenching, frowning, and complaining, in the presence of dogs compared to humans.

The presence of their pet dog, instead of an unfamiliar dog, led to a stronger reduction in pain.
It has also been shown that having a person nearby women “reduces pain more compared to being alone,” but not as much as having a dog around them.

Dogs provide “unconditional” and “non-judgmental” support to a person in pain, compared to humans, who tend to “socially judge.” For example, a person in pain may feel as if their human companion is judging them for being dramatic.

The research team cites a previous study in which stressed women preferred to be alone with their dogs when experiencing pain, because, in the company of a dog, “there was no need for social pretenses, and there was no need to meet social expectations.”

Maursberger acknowledges that her study, published in the journal Acta Psychologica, focused on the perception of pain according to the sensation of participation, which is, of course, different from the physical phenomenon of pain itself.

She told MailOnline: “Participants reported less severe pain, felt a greater ability to cope, and exhibited less pain behavior in the presence of dogs.” “And while this may not be a direct reduction of pain at the physiological level, it significantly affects how individuals experience and tolerate pain.”

^{Source: Daily Mail}