Pet Therapy: Enhancing Patient Care Through Time with Animals.

A collection of Curbside Consultation published in AFP is available at http://www.aafp.org/afp/ curbside. Case Scenario A 16-year-old girl and her parents presented to my office for her wellness evaluation. The patient has generalized anxiety disorder with comorbid major depression, for which she has been prescribed a serotonergic antidepressant. She is a high school student, lives with her parents, and is currently preparing college applications. She has occasional headaches and disturbed sleep. She takes daily three-mile walks and plays on her school tennis team, both of which help relieve her anxiety symptoms. The therapist she sees once a week has suggested enrollment in a therapeutic foster dog walking program to help further relieve her anxiety symptoms. Would animal-assisted therapy be helpful as a part of anxiety and depression management in this patient? Would such treatment be a helpful approach for other teenaged patients in my practice with similar diagnoses?