Recent studies have found that children starting contact with a domestic pet dog before the age of three are able to prevent schizophrenia in adulthood. The latest study from the Johns Hopkins University Institute of Medicine, which exposed domestic pet dogs during the first years of life, reduces the risk of schizophrenia among adults.
However, the research did not obtain the same experimental relevance on pet cats and there was a slight increase in the likelihood that children aged 9 to 12 who were exposed to pet cats would become schizophrenics after adulthood.
In their current research, Yolken and his colleagues have studied 1,371 men and women between the ages of 18371 and 65, including 396 schizophrenics, 381 bipolars and 594 comparators. The information recorded for each individual includes age, sex, race/ethnicity, place of birth and the highest level of parental education (measured by socio-economic status).
Using statistical models that produce hazard ratios, the team mapped the relationship between the age of first-time family exposure to a pet and the psychiatric diagnosis. The team conducted an analysis of four age groups: birth to 3, 4 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 to 12.
Yulken said it was surprising that research had shown that people who had come into contact with pet dogs before their 13th birthday were significantly less likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia (up to 24 per cent). The risk of schizophrenia is lowest for children born with a pet dog, or who come into contact with a pet dog before the age of three.
Yolken indicated that, if research data were a reflection of current realities, approximately 840,000 cases of schizophrenia (3.5 million people, or 24 per cent, diagnosed with the disease in the United States) could be prevented and prevented by pet dogs.