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Dog on Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus leading way on novel obsessive-compulsive disorder therapy treatment
It has become common for dogs to be used for a variety of behavioral health solutions, including those like post-traumatic stress disorder, for instance. But at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, there is a single dog that is being used in a rather unique way: helping patients with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, manage their symptoms.
Cate Rush, a social work fellow who works on the campus, has had Otis the Bernese Mountain Dog since her junior year of her undergraduate studies. He's helped in her in a variety of ways throughout her adult life, and she's now using him to help her patients as well.
Cate Rush with Otis
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"I just feel like it's so special that he's able to do something that humans cannot," she said.
Otis is a trained therapy dog but works with a specific set of clients. Most of the patients that come see Cate have OCD.
"Therapy dogs aren't commonly used for OCD so it's been a bit of a learning experience how to use him," she said.
The research on the use of dogs for OCD patients is still evolving, as is most of the research around therapy dogs in general. It's only been since the turn of the 2000s that having dogs used as aids for behavioral health solutions has become more common. But it's rare to see one that is working with OCD patients. Otis is the only dog of his kind on the medical campus in Aurora.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder currently affects 2.5% of the United States population and can be treated with what is called exposure and response prevention therapy, or ERPT. It usually involves exposing patients to things that trigger their obsessive behaviors while giving them tools to help prevent them from engaging in their typical compulsions. A 2010 study by the University of Pennsylvania, cited in the National Institute of Health, showed that ERPT can significantly reduce OCD symptoms in up to 80% of patients.
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That's where Otis comes in. He can help in a variety of ways, as a supportive and helpful sidekick to those being exposed to triggering things or situations or, in some cases, being a walking exposure therapy himself.
"There are a lot of patients who might have contamination fears," Rush said, "They can use him in exposure so I've had patients touch his paws or rub his belly."
"I had a patient and one of her final exposures in the IOP -- the intensive outpatient program -- was to high five Otis and that was really sweet," she added.
While Otis isn't part of any official research at Anschutz just yet, his presence signals an evolving approach to behavioral health solutions. One wag at a time.
