Trial reportJournal of behavioral medicine2014
The presence of a dog attenuates cortisol and heart rate in the Trier Social Stress Test compared to human friends.
Trial report in Journal of behavioral medicine, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03949569 (A Pilot Study of the Effects of Interactions With Therapy Dogs on Child Stress Responsivity), which is not on this map. Cited by 70 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Pilot Study of the Effects of Interactions With Therapy Dogs on Child Stress Responsivity
Who cites it
70 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The supporting role of dogs in the inpatient setting: a systematic review of the therapeutic effects of animal-assisted therapy with dogs for children and adolescents in an inpatient setting.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Animal-Assisted Interventions for the Improvement of Mental Health Outcomes in Higher Education Students: A Systematic Review of Randomised Controlled Trials.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- The Effect of Mental Activation of One's Pet Dog on Stress Reactivity.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Trial
- Null effects of therapy dog interaction on adolescent anxiety during a laboratory-based social evaluative stressor.Anxiety, stress, and coping · 2021Trial
- Acute psychological stress, autonomic function, and arterial stiffness among women.International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology · 2020Trial
- (Self-)caring with companion animals: a qualitative exploration of how companion animals shape everyday practices of rest and relaxation.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2026Article
- Mutual wellbeing in an equine-assisted intervention: experimental evidence for the two-way hypothesis and the importance of interaction method.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- An Idiographic, Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Adolescent-Dog Relationships in the Context of Social Anxiety.Child & youth care forum · 2026Article
- Pet Ownership is Associated with Durable Viral Suppression but Presents Healthcare Access Challenges for People with HIV.AIDS and behavior · 2026Article
- The protective role of companion animal ownership in cognitive aging: current status of the literature.GeroScience · 2026Review
- Vicarious Touch: A Potential Substitute for Social Touch During Touch Deprivation.European journal of social psychology · 2026Article
- Article
- Benefits and risks of staff-owned dogs in small animal clinics: perspectives of employees that bring their dog to work.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2026Article
- Specific Neural Mechanisms Underlying Humans' Processing of Information Related to Companion Animals: A Comparison with Domestic Animals and Objects.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Article
- Understanding the Relevance of Psychopathological Features in Pets-Owner Relationship: State of the Art and Future Directions - A Narrative Review.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2025Review
- Longitudinal relationships between pet ownership and cognitive functioning in later adulthood across pet types and individuals' ages.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Behavior Coding of Adolescent and Therapy Dog Interactions During a Social Stress Task.Veterinary sciences · 2024Article
- Companion animals and child development outcomes: longitudinal and cross-sectional analysis of a UK birth cohort study.BMC pediatrics · 2024Article
- Cognitive mechanisms and neurological foundations of companion animals' role in enhancing human psychological well-being.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Limited research has addressed how social support in the form of a pet can affect both sympathetic and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal reactivity in response to a psychological challenge. The present study examined the effects of social support on salivary cortisol and heart rate (HR). Forty-eight participants were randomly assigned to three different conditions (human friend, novel dog, or control). All participants completed the Trier Social Stress Test and provided cortisol, HR, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory measures. For participants paired with a dog, overall cortisol levels were attenuated throughout the experimental procedure, and HR was attenuated during the Trier Social Stress Test. For all groups, state anxiety increased after the Trier Social Stress Test, and HR during the Trier Social Stress Test was a predictor of cortisol. These results suggest that short-term exposure to a novel dog in an unfamiliar setting can be beneficial. They also suggest a possible mechanism for the beneficial effect associated with affiliation with pets.
Indexed as
Identifiers
24170391What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.