Pets do not significantly benefit the emotional health of owners with severe mental illness, study shows
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A new study published in the CABI journal Human-Animal Interactions suggests that companion animals—including dogs, cats, fish and birds—do not significantly benefit the emotional health of owners with severe mental illness.
The results showed that owning an animal was not significantly associated with the well-being, depression, anxiety or loneliness scores for owners with a range of severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder or psychosis.
The researchers, who followed up on an earlier survey conducted in 2021 within the same cohort to assess animal ownership and mental health during COVID-19, say their findings counteract the commonly…
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