From the Editor
He presented for the appointment with his dog. He told me that getting the chocolate lab – who had been trained by a national, not-for-profit organization – was the best single thing to help him. For the record, the dog was beautiful.
More and more of our patients are turning to animal interventions. But is there evidence to support this trend? In a new The British Journal of Psychiatry paper, Emily Shoesmith (of the University of York) and her co-authors look at dog-assisted interventions (DAIs), describing a review involving 33 papers. “DAIs may show promise for improving mental health and behavioural outcomes for those with mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, particularly for conditions requiring social skill support. However, the quality of reporting requires improvement.” We discuss the paper and its clinical implications.
In the second selection, John F. Kelly (of Harvard University) reviews the successes of drug decriminalization in Portugal and its failures in British Columbia. In a new Editorial for JAMA Psychiatry, he notes key differences in their approaches. He also mulls the importance of such public-policy experimentation. “As demonstrated in Portugal, persistent, patient, thoughtful analysis, and sensitive, systemic planning is needed to ensure lives are saved and other outcomes improved.”
Finally, we explore the latest news with articles from The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and NBC News. The topics: one firefighter’s battle with OCD, overdose deaths in North America, and a new mental-health awareness campaign.
DG
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