Swimming with dolphins lifts depression

Swimming with dolphins can be a therapy for people with depression, a new study finds.

Nature lovers or biophiles have long argued that interaction with animals can soothe a troubled mind but this claim has always lacked the scientific data to back it up.

Now UK psychiatrists publish the results of their randomised controlled trial in the British Medical Journal.

Dr Christian Antonioli and Professor Michael Reveley at the University of Leicester recruited 30 people in the US and Honduras who had been diagnosed with mild or moderate depression.

The severity of their symptoms was calculated according to established yardsticks for mental health, the Hamilton and Beck scales, which are based on interviews and questionnaires with the patient.

The volunteers were required to stop taking antidepressant drugs and psychotherapy for four weeks.

Half of the group was then randomly selected to play, snorkel and take care of bottlenose dolphins each day at an institute for marine sciences in Honduras.

The other half was assigned to a program of outdoor activities, also at the institute, that included swimming and snorkelling at a coral reef, but without the dolphins.

Two weeks later, both groups had improved, but especially so the patients who had been swimming with the dolphins.

Measurable symptoms of depression in the dolphin group had fallen by half and by two-thirds according to the two scales, twice as much as in the non-dolphin group.

In addition, a self-rating measurement of anxiety symptoms, the Zung scale, found a fall of more than 20% among the dolphin group, compared with a decline of 11% among the non-dolphin groups.

A first for dolphins
"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first randomised, single blind, controlled trial of animal-facilitated therapy with dolphins," say Antonioli and Reveley.

"The effects exerted by the animals were significantly greater than those of just the natural setting. The echolocation system, the aesthetic value, and the emotions raised by the interaction with dolphins may explain the mammals' healing properties."

Three months after the study, patients from both groups said their symptoms were still improved and did not need treatment.

Is biophilia the answer?
This suggests that in patients with mild or moderate depression, using drugs or conventional psychotherapy may not be necessary when biophilic treatment with animals is used, the scientists include.

Supporters of biophilia say that our affiliation with nature is an innate human tendancy. And disrupting that affiliation means tipping the equilibrium, so damaging our psychological health.

Source: abc.net.au/science/news