• Sample size of 170, which even the researchers admitted was low
• First study done during the lockdowns, which they posited may have had a negative affect as people tried to cope with financial stress, sudden social isolation, and caring for a pet without ever leaving the house. It did, they found.
• Second study taken post-lockdown, unable to compare depression and anxiety as they did not bother measuring those the first time (why not?)
• Trained animals do provide a benefit, actually; friendly obedience and a relaxed personality found in support animals suggested to be a factor but they never measured that either I guess.
• 95% report greater life consistency and a sense of love, so maybe pets are helpful for someone in vital need of emotional support, we don’t know.
Overall, I think if they tried really, really hard, and I mean really put their minds to it, they could write a worse headline for such an ambiguous and unhelpful article.
I’d consider a sample size of 170 to be pretty large, if the sample was drawn with perfect randomness from the population. But this one wasn’t, it was self-selected. Also wasn’t a clinical trial, and while they seem to know what they’re doing with setting up the questionnaire, I would assume it would result in larger measurement error, which would need more samples to be able to correct for.
Completely agree with you though - the conclusions that it seems reasonable to draw from this are ‘not much, really’. Seems to disagree with the results of a larger study by many of the same authors, too, which say that companion animals did result in a smaller decline in mental health during lockdown.
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0239397
I have bipolar disorder and 2 dogs and a human family too.
Here are the problems I see: people with severe mental health disorders can be pretty poor pet owners. Severe depression can mean laying in bed but dogs need to get outside to pee and poop and exercise. If the owner isn’t focused enough or doesn’t have help, the animal can end up neglected and the environment can end up dirty.
In the case of bipolar disorder, it doesn’t matter what the animal does or doesn’t do. The disorder is like an internal injury: it doesn’t go away or lessen based on external stimuli. When the episodes happen they just happen. We can fight it and get therapy and stuff but the injury is still there. I could be as rich as Elon Musk and my manic and depressive episodes will still happen.
That said, I love my pets and even though I have a whole family, I am the one that takes them out, gives them medicine, buys their food (but my kid feeds them most days), and they depend on me more than anyone else.
This is anecdotal, but I’ve loved animals my entire life. I was going to be a vet, but changed careers because my internship made me afraid it would ruin my love of animals.
I’ve had a very rough twenty years. I was married to a man who turned out was abusive to animals, so I gave up my dream of having pets. When I bucked my entire culture to divorce him, I fought my way back to enough financial security to own them again.
My first pet was 5 when I got him. I had three years of his endless health problems, but I loved him and he died. Then I got a couple of puppies and I love them, but…I don’t think I’ll own any more dogs. Dealing with other pet owners has been a nightmare. Off leash, poorly trained, outright dangerous dogs everywhere.
But even more to the point, I’m a terrible owner for them. I’m allergic, so I only play with them before my shower. And my mental health has me barely able to function some days. And I’ll never be able to own the property they need to truly flourish. They deserve better than me. So I agree. Poor mental health can be exacerbated by pet ownership.
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