Measuring Anxiety in Dogs

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Byron Todd Stevens
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1 Measuring Anxiety in Dogs Dr Dennis Wormald BVSc(Hons), BSc(Hons), BBSc

2 Why is Anxiety important? May predispose the development of anxiety disorders in Humans: Humans: Panic disorder Obsessive-compulsive disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder Social anxiety disorder Specific phobias Generalised anxiety disorder State-trait anxiety inventory Van Dam, N. T., D. F. Gros, M. Earleywine and M. M. Antony (2013). "Establishing a trait anxiety threshold that signals likelihood of anxiety disorders." Anxiety, Stress & Coping 26(1):

3 Canine anxiety Canine anxiety is thought to be related to: Separation anxiety Noise phobias Inter-dog aggression Impulse control aggression Fear aggression 3

4 What is anxiety? Definition The apprehensive anticipation of future danger or misfortune accompanied by a feeling of dysphoria or somatic symptoms of tension Different to fear which requires the presence of an actual or perceived threat State anxiety Anxiety present at a particular time often normal Trait anxiety Tendency to be anxious across time Behavioural paradigm Test situations that the animal is placed into, designed to detect and measure specific behaviours. 4

5 Is anxiety contributing to behaviour problems? Evidence Anthropomorphising anxiety-like behaviors Vigilance, scanning, attentiveness, motor activity, autonomic hyperactivity, displacement behaviours Treatment of anxiety disorders with anxiolytics (benzodiazepines, SSRIs) Neurophysiological measurements of dogs diagnosed with anxiety disorders Serotonin, cortisol, noradrenaline, heart rate 5

6 Measuring anxiety: Rodents Established methods for measuring anxiety: Rodents behavioural paradigms s of studies Anxiety: elevated plus maze, open field Pharmacological validation with anxiolytic (eg. Diazepam) 6

7 Measuring anxiety: dogs Established methods for measuring anxiety: Dogs no established method yet Few studies Body language displacement behaviors, vigilance, Sympathetic arousal Qualitative measurement of anxiety, not quantitative A few behavioural paradigm studies including some open field testing Little baseline data Measuring different traits/behaviors Using different methods Many focus on conditioned responses 7

8 Study overview Current studies: 1. Behavioural paradigms designed to measure trait anxiety in greyhound dogs Open field test Response to acoustic tone Unconditioned place preference 2. Measurement of stress coping style in greyhound dogs 3. Greyhound Adoption Program (GAP) collaboration 8

9 Study overview Open field test Aiming to measure unconditioned behaviour in a novel environment 10 minute open field test (empty room), where the dog can choose to explore. Many factors influence exploratory behaviour, including anxiety which is believed to suppress this behaviour. 9

10 3 Trial Design Trial 1 Open field test 2-4 weeks Trial 2 Trial 3 Open field test 2-4 weeks Open field test (dogs split into 2 groups, either 1mg/kg diazepam or placebo) 10

11 Video tracking 11

12 Open field test 12

13 Activity during trials 1 and 2 *** Mean +/- 1 SE ***p < paired sample student s t test n = 39 Spearman's correlation: coefficient = significance < n = 39 13

14 Activity during third trial *** n = 19 n = 20 n = 19 n = 20 Mean +/- 1 SE ***p < independent sample student s t test 14

15 Final thoughts Distance travelled was increased by diazepam Exploratory behaviour disinhibited? Escape behaviour disinhibited? Relevance of study to general practice Diazepam dose (1mg/kg) is similar doses used for thunderstorm/ fireworks phobia Non-clinical dogs Paradigm eliciting minimal stress Breed differences? 15

16 Research Team Dennis Wormald 1, G Carter 2, AJ Lawrence 3, AD Fisher 1 1. Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Werribee 2. Advanced Vetcare, Kensington, VIC, Australia 3. Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Parkville, VIC, Australia Additional thanks to Blood Bank staff and Melanie Conley -All images from Microsoft clip art or Wikimedia commons - 16

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18 Supplementary material (if required) See following slides, available if needed to respond to questions 18

19 Trial 3 habituation curve 19

20 Open field layout Speaker 4.7 m Entrance 6.4 m 20

21 Distance from speaker during acoustic stimulus *** Mean +/- 1 SE Mixed model analysis F 3,678 = 23.3 Bonferroni multiple comparisons ***p<0.001 Trial 1 and 2: n = 39 Placebo: n = 19 Diazepam: n = 20 21

Anxiety, Panic and Other Disorders

Methodist Assistance Program Anxiety, Panic and Other Disorders Anxiety, panic and other disorders such as agoraphobia, social phobia, compulsive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder are all very