Does human-dog attachment increase the resilience and resistance to COVID-19? A biopsychosocial approach and future research
This article is a biopsychosocial proposal about improvement of resilience to diseases, including the COVID-19, due to affective attachment between humans and dogs. Resilience concerns the physical and emotional human capacity to respond positively to the adverse events such as diseases. Recently, s...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Universidad Católica del Uruguay
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10895/3164 https://revistas.ucu.edu.uy/index.php/cienciaspsicologicas/article/view/2440 https://doi.org/10.22235/cp.v15i2.2440 |
| Summary: | This article is a biopsychosocial proposal about improvement of resilience to diseases, including the COVID-19, due to affective attachment between humans and dogs. Resilience concerns the physical and emotional human capacity to respond positively to the adverse events such as diseases. Recently, some authors have proposed independent hypotheses about role of oxytocin (OT) and crossed immunity to increase the psychological resilience and immune response against the COVID-19. This text extends the hypothesis to a biopsychosocial field, including the well-known benefits of the human-dog affective attachment on human health. And proposes that a strong and reciprocal affection between human and dog can increase the resilience and resistance to COVID-19, due the role of OT in the immune response, adding to crossed immunity. Other benefits such as emotional buffering, mental comfort and stress alleviation are adjunctive roles of dogs on human health and vice-versa. Este artículo es una propuesta biopsicosocial sobre la mejora de la resiliencia a enfermedades, incluida la COVID-19, debido al apego afectivo entre humanos y perros. La resiliencia se refiere a la capacidad humana física y emocional de responder positivamente a los eventos adversos, como las enfermedades. Recientemente, algunos autores han propuesto hipótesis independientes sobre el papel de la oxitocina (OT) y la inmunidad cruzada para aumentar la resiliencia y la respuesta frente a la COVID-19. Aquí se extiende esa hipótesis al campo biopsicosocial, incluyendo los bien conocidos beneficios del apego afectivo humano-perro sobre la salud humana. Se propone que las relaciones de afecto fuerte y recíproco entre humanos y perros pueden aumentar la resiliencia a la COVID-19, debido al papel de la OT en la respuesta inmune, sumando inmunidad cruzada. Otros beneficios como amortiguar el efecto de las emociones, la comodidad mental y el alivio del estrés son funciones complementarias de los perros en la salud humana y viceversa. Este artículo es una ... |
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