Pet Therapy in geriatrics: a social and medical relationship

• Main Authors: Antonio Pugliese, Annamaria Pugliese
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti 2017-06-01
• Series: Atti della Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti - Classe di Scienze Medico-Biologiche
• Subjects: PetTherapy; Geriatrics; Social impact of Pet Therapy
• Online Access: http://cab.unime.it/journals/index.php/APMB/article/view/1551
• ISSN: 0365-0294; 1828-6550

Pet therapy is an innovative science that finds valid intervention strategies not only for treating psycho-physical diseases but also for improving the quality of life. The areas of intervention concern various fields: pedagogical, psychological, social and health care. Improving the welfare state of certain categories of people, including the elderly. The contact with the animal demonstrates not only positive influence on social and individual parameters, such as interaction and communication, but is also effective on behavioral parameters, reducing agitation, stimulating creativity, curiosity and observation capacity, And affectivity with improved depression and anxiety. In complementary therapies, pet therapy, either animal assisted activity (AAA) or animal assisted therapy (AAT), is able to modify the state of the present by providing some well-being in the elderly in treatment. A therapy that goes beyond From the severity of the patient's status but could also benefit in those cases of particular gravity as Alzhaimer's. The use of this therapy in elderly people who can record a physiological aging of their functions, such as dementia and Alzheimer's, also has a strong emotional, cognitive and relational stimulation, a recovery of autobiographical memory, an increase in sense of Self-esteem and self-efficacy, a push towards eagerness and social interaction. A therapeutic geriatric, which works mainly on emotions, modifies quantitatively the behavioral and cognitive changes of patients and, by integrating with traditional drugs, improves the state of well-being and quality of life.