Do Psychiatric Service Dogs help those suffering from PTSD: Encyclopedia articles

Weiner, Irving B., and W. Edward. Craighead. "Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology. Fourth ed. Vol. 3. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2010. 1273. Print.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder defined by symptoms reflecting disturbances in Cognitive, behavioral, and physiological functioning that develop in the wake of exposure to a psychologically traumatic event. According to the DSM-IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), the diagnosis applies to individuals who develop a requisite number of symptoms after experiencing, witnessing, or being confronted with an even that involved perceived or threatened loss of life, serious injury, or loss of physical integrity evoked fear, helplessness, or horror (e.g. military combat, sexual or physical assault, serious accidents, and major disasters). TDSM-IV-TR organizes the symptoms of PTSD under three clusters: (1) reexperiencing (e.g., intrusive thoughts, nightmares, flashbacks, and psychophysiological reactivity to reminders of trauma), (2) avoidance and emotional numbing (e.g., avoiding stimuli associated with the trauma and inability to experience a full range of emotions), and (3) hyper arousal (e.g., hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, and sleep disruptions). By definition, these symptoms must persist for more than 1 month after the trauma and produce clinically significant distress and/or impairment.

Annotation:

PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that manifests itself in cognitively, behaviorally, and physiologically, that develops after a psychologically traumatic event. This disorder happens when a person develops a certain amount of symptoms for at least one month, after a traumatic event that threaten them. There are three ways a person can experience symptoms in three ways re-experiencing, avoidance and emotional numbing, and hyper arousal.

"Dog." Encyclopedia Of Animals (2006): 1. Middle Search Plus. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.

Dogs live in nearly every kind of habitat, including plains, forests, mountains, and dry regions. Members of the dog family may be as small as the fennec fox. The fennec fox is 10 to 16 inches (25 1/2 to 40 centimeters) long with a tail up to one foot (1/2 meter) long. It weighs just over three pounds (one kilogram). Other dogs are much larger, such as the gray wolf. Gray wolves are up to 6 1/2 feet (two meters) from nose to tip of tail. Weight ranges up to 175 pounds (65 kilograms). In general, dogs have long muzzles, well-developed jaws, large pointed ears, and blunt claws. Fur can either be one color, or many. Some types of dogs have stripes, others have different types of spots. Dogs have strong senses of hearing and sight, but depend mostly on their sense of smell when hunting.

Diet varies among members of the dog family. Dogs which run in packs will often run down large, hoofed animals. Dogs which hunt alone usually prey on small rodents, ground birds, and insects. Some dogs feed on carrion (dead animals). Others eat a lot of plants and vegetation.

Members of the dog family walk, trot, or gallop on all fours. They live in burrows, caves, crevices, or hollow trees.

Mating season varies from one species to another depending on where they live. Gestation (duration of pregnancy) varies from one species to another, but the average is two months. Litters, ranging in size from 2 to 13 pups, are born each year. Pups are born blind, helpless, and with hair. They drink their mothers' milk until they are old enough to eat solid food. Mothers take care of their pups until they are old enough to outrun their enemies. In the wild, members of the dog family have a life span ranging from 6 years to 15 years. In captivity, some dogs live up to 20 years.

Annotation:

Dogs live nearly everywhere and range in sizes from the 10 inches and three pounds like the Fennec Fox to the Gray Wolf at 6 ½ feet and 175 pounds. Typically dogs have long muzzles well-developed jaws, large pointed ears, and blunt claws. Coloring can vary greatly. Hearing and sight and smell is strong. Diets also vary. Dogs can hunt large hoofed animals or small rodents, ground birds, and insects depending on their hunting style, they will also eat vegetation. They can move at all paces and live in many different types of shelters. Mating season and gestation varies but the gestation period is usually about two months. Litters range from 2 to 13 pups which are born each year. The Pups are born blind, helpless, and with hair. At first they drink milk and then they are weaned off as soon as they are able. Once they can outrun their enemies they separated from their mother. Their life span ranges from 6 to 15 years in the wild to nearly 20 once domesticated.

The Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology