Research from the NIH shows that over 19 million Americans are suffering from depression. Keeping a pet is a good way to remove the loneliness and separation.
Research from Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) has demonstrated that up to 17% of dogs in the U.S. are suffering from separation anxiety.
What?
That’s nearly one in every five dogs in your street, burdened with a debilitating mental disorder. Or two dogs for every person in your street who has depression. Now that’s an impressive market.
Where there’s a problem the forces of supply and demand will find a solution, and this is the void into which Lilly stepped with its anti-depressant drug Reconcile (or Prozac by any other name). As a first foray into pet-pharmaceuticals, Reconcile followed hot on the heels of Pfizer’s diet drug Slentrol launched earlier in the year.
Lilly’s companion-animal division is now poring through the molecules in its library of compounds, looking for other streams of income from this undeveloped market.
Some quotes that I’ve read:
“Dogs affected may bark, chew household items, or urinate in inappropriate locations when left alone”.
“Anxiety may cause the dog to engage in inappropriate behavior, such as destruction, excess vocalization and inappropriate elimination.”
Our kids do the same if we neglect them for long enough.
‘My animal is a member of the family, and I am willing to pay the cost of drugs that were developed for humans.’
So what is your view? Is a dog more likely to need an SSRI or a long walk and some love and attention?
For a more thought-provoking post:
http://www.furiousseasons.com
http://ahrp.blogspot.com
http://www.cbc.ca/ (scroll down to “Pet Prozac”)
For lots of airbrushed dogs on the Lilly pet site:
http://www.lillypet.com/
james 4 Jul 2007 @ 5:03 am
I expect they would prefer some ecotherapy (first exercise post) to meet their emotional and physical needs, and provide a ready supply of trees.
Glad to hear from you again Rachel. Cheers.
jane chin 5 Jul 2007 @ 2:05 pm
I don’t own a dog so am not qualified to comment from personal experience. I do have friends with dogs, and some of them have gotten prescriptions for their dogs’ anxiety, including behaviors like repetitive licking that would prevent wound healing.
I have to agree with the previous comments: many of our pets’ “problems” today are directly caused by absent owners who shut their animals up in tiny confines for long periods at a time.
james 5 Jul 2007 @ 10:52 pm
I have a couple of dogs, and they get bored and destructive after about 4 hours of being alone. When we leave them they are outside on a property with lots of bunnies to chase. And we take them out everyday for exercise too.
Most breeds need a lot of attention and interaction, a lot more than we can normally give when we have busy lives. I don’t doubt that some dogs suffer from anxiety, but Lily’s estimate of 17% sounds like wishful thinking to me.