Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Gretchen Evans served in the United States Army for 27 years until a rocket blast in Afghanistan brought her career to an abrupt end in 2006. At just 46 years old, Evans was left with near-total hearing loss, a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.
After more than a year of rehabilitation, she struggled to find a new identity.
“It was a devastating shock to me,” Evans said. “I lost my career, my passion and purpose. In the beginning, it was a very rough transition, not just from the military to civilian world, but overcoming these injuries. I struggled with employment. I struggled connecting with other people. I fell into a very lonely depressive state.”
Relief finally came in the form of a service dog named Aura, a black Labrador retriever with “lovable brown eyes” with whom Evans was paired in 2015. Evans retired her four-legged friend to a more domestic life in her home five years later, at which time she was paired with her second dog, a golden retriever and black lab mix she likes to call “Rambunctious Rusty.”
The benefits of service dogs for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder are well documented in personal stories like Evans’ but there is a lack of empirical research on the use of the animals as a medical intervention.
Researchers at the University of Arizona College of Veterinary Medicine have taken a step toward better understanding the relationship between veterans and service dogs, which they believe could lead to life-changing improvements in health care for veterans.
In a new study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open, researchers found that veterans who worked with service dogs experienced significantly lower self-reported and clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity, lower anxiety and depression, a significantly higher quality of life and fewer feelings of isolation. Veterans working with service dogs also had 66% lower odds of receiving a PTSD diagnosis from a mental health professional after three months with a dog.
While the results of the study support veterans partnering with service dogs to reduce PTSD symptoms, the researchers say more work must be done to better understand exactly how working with a service dog impacts other treatments for PTSD.
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