1994 Volume 34 Issue 8 Pages 679-683
Setting an eye on the fact that bulimia nervosa (BN) patients are interested in animals, particularly dogs, authors had them keep an indoor pet dog as pet facilitated therapy (PFT). This paper is a report on two representative cases selected from among 9 cases for which PFT proved effective. Case 1 is a 21-year-old female. Because of severe BN, she has been followed up at the Kurokawa Internal Medicine Clinic since April, 1989. In January, 1992 she confined herself in her house at daytime with the sequence of day and night reversed and became desperate. In October, 1992 we proposed that she keep a pup. Accepting our proposal, she began raising a pup with a feeding bottle. After that, BN improved rapidly, and the outing time increased. She has obtained a license for motor-bike and started working part time at a coffee house. Case 2 is a 17-year-old female. She was 163 cm in height, weighed 36.5 kg and had anorexia nervosa (AN) when she was seen at the Kurokawa Internal Medicine Clinic in August, 1990. Since she showed a strong rejection to hospital admission, we administered the out-patient therapy (hospital body weight setting therapy) making use of the reiection to hospital admission, one of the regimens being employed at this clinic. She followed a satisfactory course, weighed up to 42. 5 kg in May, 1992 but began complaining of BN. In July of the same year, she weighed 45 kg but became worried about school examinations and BN so much as to show a suicidal attempt. Accepting our proposal, she started raising an indoor pet dog. With this as the turning point, she became stable mentally albeit with BN. She weighed 60 kg in January, 1993 but said, "As I keep a dog, my friend come to play with me. The dog serves as a sort of lubricant oil between me on the one hand and my family members and friends on the other". The PFT is effective when BN persists over a long period of time or when there is a shift from AN to BN. That is because patients with eating disorder have affinity to dogs in particular and pay more attention to dogs than bulimia and also because the indoor pet dogs particularly docile, easy to form skin contact and serves as a lubricant oil in the intrafamilial personal relations.
