Therapy dogs boost patient wellbeing at Barcelona hospital ICU

Lu howls softly next to a bed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Barcelona's Hospital del Mar. This greyhound is asking for some human contact, which she loves. 

Next to her, Vida, a rescue dog, seems to be falling asleep while being petted by Francisco, one of the ward's patients. 

The two dogs are therapy dogs, from a program that Hospital del Mar and the Affinity Foundation have started in order to improve the emotional well-being of patients.

It is an innovative project, the first of its kind in an adult ICU in Spain, according to those responsible. 

As part of the project, there will be a study carried out to evaluate the benefits of the therapy, with stress levels measured by analyzing saliva samples from patients.  

Reduce stress and encourage communication 

Three-year-old Lu was abandoned in a den in Andalusia, probably after the hunting season, explains Affinity Foundation's therapies manager, Maribel Vila, while 7-year-old Vida was also found helpless, on the street. 

Now, after being trained as therapy dogs, they visit Hospital del Mar patients who are in intensive care, or who have been hospitalized for more than seven days. 

The initiative will consist of around seventy sessions, two per week, of between 15 and 20 minutes per patient.

Dr. Lucía Picazo, from the Intensive Medicine Service, explains that patients admitted to ICU are very worried about their health. The idea of the project is to "reduce stress levels, increase well-being, encourage communication and participate in rehabilitation." 

"In this program, we fundamentally work on the emotional dimension, so that patients feel supported, based on this immediate connection that is established with the animals," adds Jaume Fatjó, director of the Affinity Animals and Health Foundation Chair at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). 

For the project, they looked for dogs with a calm temperament, who feel comfortable sitting on a bed and like human contact. 

Admission to ICU is subject to strict hospital protocols and the dogs are permanently supervised by veterinarians specializing in animal welfare and behavior.

"Thirty or thirty-five years ago, when we started, entering a hospital or a school [with dogs] seemed like science fiction. And now we are going into ICUs. There aren't more complex places than ICU wards," says Maribel Vila. 

To measure the effects of the dogs' presence, researchers will collect saliva samples from patients before and after their interaction with the dogs. 

"We will measure if cortisol, the stress hormone, is reduced, and whether hormones linked to well-being, such as melatonin and oxytocin, increase," says Dr. Picazo.