Animal therapy might be able to replace pain medication

While pain medication serves a very real purpose – to help people cope with intense pain for any number of reasons – pain tolerance can vary from person to person.

In this 2014 study, patients recovering from total joint replacement surgery were treated using animal-assisted therapy (AAT), in addition to taking traditional pain medication. Other patients were given nothing but the pain medication. The patients with AAT recovered more quickly than those without.

“The animal-human connection is powerful in reducing stress and in generating a sense of well-being,” Julia Havey, the lead author and researcher at Loyola University Health System, said in a press release for the study.