Acupuntura no tratamento da síndrome de ansiedade por separação em cães

Abstract

Separation Anxiety Syndrome (SAS) in dogs is one of the most common psychopathologies of the canine species, characterized by a situation of suffering experienced by the animal, triggering a set of behavioral emotional reactions from the separation (or announcement of it) of its attachment figure. The treatment for this psychiatric disorder consists of Cognitive Behavior Therapy, associated or not with the use of psychotropic drugs, and to complementary integrative therapies, including acupuncture. The objective of this study was to understand the effects of acupuncture on SAS, associated or not with behavioral therapy. For this purpose, 15 dogs, male and female, between one and five years old, of different breeds that were not undergoing drug or behavioral therapy. The animals were divided into 3 groups were evaluated: G1 treated exclusively with behavioral therapy, G2 treated exclusively with acupuncture and G3 treated with both therapies. The effectiveness of the techniques was evaluated by comparing questionnaires referring to the behaviors expressed by the dogs and videos of the animal in the absence of its attachment figure before and after treatment. The tutors from the G1 and G3 groups also rated the difficulty of behavioral therapy on a scale of 1 to 10. All groups had not only a decrease in the clinical signs of the disease, but also extinction of behaviors expressed before the therapy. Acupuncture acted as an enhancer of behavioral therapy, and to demonstrating positive effects in isolation in the treatment of SAS.