'Psychiatric rehabilitation occurs through the interaction with animals in nature and the stimulation of the nervous system through the senses.... Dolphins are intelligent, attractive animals and patients responded to their attentive natures.'

Researchers allowed a group of patients to swim and snorkel with dolphins in a two-week experiment. Three months later, they were still experiencing lasting benefits and did not need medical treatment.

Dolphin therapy is thought to stimulate the nervous system through emotional engagement with animals and the natural environment. Researcher Professor Michael Reveley, of the University of Leicester Medical School, said the trial was the first of its kind.

"It has the potential to bring alternative clinical strategies to the treatment of emotional disorders," he added.

"Psychiatric rehabilitation occurs through the interaction with animals in nature and the stimulation of the nervous system through the senses. We have gotten away from nature and lost the positive interaction we used to have with animals. Dolphins are intelligent, attractive animals and patients responded to their attentive natures."

Baffled as to How It Works

For 20 years, some health professionals have been convinced that dolphin therapy helps those with problems such as learning disorders and depression.

But they are baffled as to how it works.

Their beliefs have led to the establishment of Human Dolphin Therapy Centers in places such as Florida. At the centers, those with autism, Down's syndrome and neurological and movement disorders pay to swim with dolphins.

One theory is that dolphins use their sonar ability to identify neurological disorders in people, then help them relax and open up to healing and treatment.

Others say the benefits are psychological, as dolphins distract patients from their suffering.

Severity of Depressive Symptoms Fell

Little formal research had been done before the study by Professor Reveley and his colleagues.

It involved 30 mild or moderately depressed patients recruited from the US and Honduras; the experiment took place in Honduras.

Half were assigned to swim with dolphins. The rest were given water therapy, according to a report published Friday in the British Medical Journal.

For a fortnight, patients swam and snorkeled with dolphins for an hour a day.

They stopped taking drugs or consulting a psychotherapist for four weeks before the study.

The patients did not take drugs at the same time.

The average severity of depressive symptoms fell among patients swimming with dolphins more than among those just doing water-based activities.

Lasting Improvements

Dolphin therapy had benefits beyond the energizing effect of the natural setting. Three months after the study, nine of the patients who swam with dolphins reported lasting improvements, along with three water therapy patients whose symptoms had been mostly alleviated.

Professor Reveley said: "Animal facilitated therapy with dolphins is more effective than 'water' therapy in treating people with mild to moderate depression." He said symptoms improved after two weeks in patients who swam with dolphins.

This would normally take four weeks with conventional therapy.

(c:) Daily Mail; London (UK)
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