Dog therapy can relieve pain in childhood cancer by 30%, according to Spanish experts

RESEARCH evidence indicates that visiting a therapy dog ​​may have a positive effect on reducing patient stress, pain, and anxiety.

So while dog-assisted therapies don’t cure, they can reduce pain.

In fact, according to recent calculations by the Chair of Animals and Society of the Rey Juan Carlos University (URJC), in the case of pediatric cancer, pain can be alleviated by up to 30%.

Dog therapy focuses on rehabilitation and post-cancer survival where psychological pain is very common in children and animal therapies help them cope.

This type of therapy is also offered in hospital. Children with cancer require prolonged hospitalization and this causes fear, pain and uncertainty, so humanizing the stay with interventions assisted by dogs makes it bearable and even makes the memory of the hospital pleasant.

According to the coordinator of this chair at the URJC, Nuria Máximo, who since 2019 has been working with children and adolescents with cancer and other pathologies in different hospitals, has concluded that therapy with dogs can relieve pain in childhood cancer by 30%.

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