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Ask Dr. Ceren: Grief Over Loss of Pet
© 2003-2006, Sandra Levy Ceren. All Rights Reserved.

A reader queries:

My friend is devasted over the loss of her dog. How can I help her? Shall I offer to take her to the animal shelter to adopt another?

It is normal to feel grief over the loss of a pet. Anyone who has had a pet can tell you of the comfort and joy a pet provides.

If your friend’s loss is recent, it may be too soon to suggest a replacement. However, if you think sufficient time has passed, say three months, and she is still grieving, you could suggest the animal shelter, but back off if it upsets her.

She may consider herself unfaithful to her lost pet, if she took a replacement too soon. Simply express your sorrow for her loss. Please tell her to take comfort in the fact that she provided love and care to her pet, but the pet’s time had come.

You may offer distractions, such as making dinner for her, or taking her out on the town, or a walk on the beach, whatever you and she enjoy together.

Pets are valued as co-therapists to the infirmed, elderly, and mentally ill patients. It helps to have a pet after the loss of a loved one. Homeless people bond with pets. Children experiencing nightmares may find they sleep easier when a pet sleeps in the room with them.

The latest issue of the American Psychological Society Journal, "Current Directions in Psychological Science" reviews an article on the influence of pets and/or drugs on blood pressure.

The research suggests "high social support and pet ownership were associated with better survival after heartattack, and that these effects were independent of the physiological severity of the heart attack, demographic characteristics of the patient, and psychosocial factors."

"Compared with their counterparts without pets, elderly people with pets appear to be buffered from the impact of stressful life events and make fewer visits to physicians. In addition, "among people with AIDS, pet owners have a lower incidence of depression than do people without pets" (p. 237).

The article describes an experiment designed to test the validity of the research by randomly assigning participants to "pet" and "non-pet" groups.

To find participants who were subjected to stress, they chose stockbrokers living alone who described their work as "extremelystressful." All of the participants had been without pets for at least five years.

The participants "had high blood pressure (greater than 160/100) and were scheduled to begin drug therapy with Lisinopril (partof a class of drugs called angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors).Although Lisinopril is quite successful in reducing resting blood pressure, previous studies had demonstrated that it is not capable of bluntingresponses to stress. In this experiment, then, it was possible to consider two important issues: (a) the influence of random assignment to pet ownership and (b) the degree to which the combination of a pet and Lisinopril may produce effects different from those derived from drug therapy alone."

Among the findings were that "while under stress.the individuals who acquired pets had blood pressure increases that were less than half the increases of their counterparts without pets." Interestingly, the research findings suggest that "resting blood pressure and blood pressure reactions to stress are influenced by independent mechanisms. That is, resting blood pressure can be influenced by a drug, but adding a pet to the social environment can alter stress responses" (p 238).