dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT)
"If you understand the
life of captive dolphins, you also begin to see the dolphin show with all
its clowning around in another way...It's abusive. When we understand that
the dolphins are doing this because it's their only way of staying alive,
we see it clearly for what it is: dominance. We're making dolphins do
silly things they would never do in nature, because we're amused by
dominating helpless members of another species. The worst part is that it
teaches children that it's okay to mock and disrespect one of nature's
most fabulous of beings." --Richard
O'Barry. trainer of
Flipper
Dolphin-assisted therapy (DAT) involves swimming in a
tank with dolphins in order to treat some mental or physical disorder. DAT is especially popular with parents who believe it can have a
significant positive impact on the "cognitive, physical, or social-emotional
behaviors" of their disabled children (Humphries
2003). In 2003, a typical program cost $2,600 for five 40-minute
sessions. Humphries provides a description of the procedure:
The therapy typically occurs in marine
parks and dolphinariums as part of programs that allow people to swim with
dolphins. Children receiving DAT go through focused one-on-one sessions of
individualized activities with a therapist (e.g., a speech, occupational, or
physical therapist depending on the child's disability) where interactions
with dolphins follow a child's correct cognitive, physical, or
social-emotional response.
Though there are DAT programs throughout the world,
there is very little evidence that swimming with dolphins is anything more
than a gimmick (Marino and Lilienfeld 1998;
Lilienfeld. Lynn, and Lohr 2002). As far as I know, there has been only
one
randomized controlled DAT experiment whose results have been published
in a peer-reviewed journal (British Medical Journal, November 26,
2005). The results were positive but the study sample was small (25
participants completed the study) and the length of the study very short
(two weeks of therapy for depressed patients). It remains to be seen whether
the effects of DAT on mild to moderately depressed people are lasting and
can be replicated. If you ask the media,
the results are already in. (A Google search found dozens of news
stories based on this very preliminary research with headlines ranging from
"Swimming with dolphins can relieve depression" to "A dolphin at bay keeps
the blues away.") It also remains to be seen whether these researchers
can demonstrate that dolphin therapy is significantly better than other
animal therapies that use domesticated animals.
This questionable therapy can also be
dangerous. As with other wild animals who are captured and whose food is
then provided for them (provisioning), tanked dolphins can become aggressive
and ram or bite people (Samuels and Spradlin 1995; Frohoff and Packard 1995;
Webster et al. 1998). There is also the risk of bacterial, viral, or fungal
infection (Buck and Schroeder 1990).*
The studies that have been published in support of DAT
have hitherto been practice-based rather than controlled and are seriously flawed.
For example, D. E. Nathanson and some associates have done
several studies that are often cited as support for the effectiveness of
DAT. These studies lack controls, however, "making it impossible to
determine whether their results were due to the specific effects of DAT or
to a host of potentially confounding factors" (Marino and Lilienfeld 1998).
Other flaws in the work of Nathanson et al. are cited by Marino and
Lilienfeld:
When comparing subjects' responses with dolphins
versus favorite toys the two conditions took place at entirely different
facilities: The
Dolphin Research Centre versus a local motel, resulting in a complete
confounding of treatment condition with setting.
Behaviors that might have worsened were never
systematically assessed or analyzed.
Of 137 questionnaires sent out to parents only 52% were returned.
Were the other 48% dissatisfied customers?
Humphries (2003)
evaluated six studies and could not find that the data support "the notion
that using interactions with dolphins is any more effective than other
reinforcers for improving child learning or social-emotional development."
After reviewing more than twenty years of research,
much of it promoting the effectiveness of DAT, Dr. Karsten Brensing (2005)
concluded: "There is still no proof that DAT is more successful than other
animal assisted therapies."
Why is the therapy so widespread, then? The
media may share some of the blame for not being critical of the studies that
have been put forth regarding just about anything dealing with dolphins. As Brensing (2005) notes, it is hard not to think there is something to this
therapy when one considers the following:
DAT has been employed for about 20 years to help
mentally and physically disabled or terminally ill people. Since 1982 there
has been a number of publications about dolphin-assisted therapy by several
psychologists: The first piece of research was a case study in which
dolphins were used to motivate an autistic child to communicate (Smith
1981). A further experiment indicated that children learned two to ten times
faster and with greater retention when working with dolphins (Nathanson
1989). Also significant improvements in hierarchical cognitive responses
occurred when interacting with dolphins in mentally disabled children (Nathanson
& de Faria 1993). An improvement of the social situation in families with
disabled children could also be observed (Voorhees 1995). Analysis of EEG
showed that interaction with dolphins has a relaxing influence on humans
(Cole 1996; Birch 1997). Effectiveness of short-term (Nathanson, de Castro &
McMahon 1997) and long-term (Nathanson 1998) dolphin-assisted therapy for
children with severe disabilities was presented. Based on a study with
approximately 1500 patients, a positive influence on child's autonomic
homeostasis and psychoemotional status could be observed (Lukina 1999).
Furthermore, the presence of the dolphins seemed to alleviate the pain
atopic dermatitis patients experienced while bathing in seawater. It could
be shown that the skin condition improved dramatically, and immunologically,
while serum IL-8 levels decreased (Iikura et al. 2001). A reduction of
anxiety in organized tourists swimming groups in the wild was also observed
(Webb and Drummond 2001). [See
Brensing for the full titles of these references.]
Any positive social effects of DAT may be attributed
to the effects of socializing, such as increasing trust or responsibility.
Positive healing effects may be attributed to many factors from salt water
to the
placebo effect to
subjective validation. Evidence that
swimming with dolphins, rather than some other factor, accounts for the
satisfied customers, has not been produced in all the years of research on
the subject.
Despite the lack of evidence from adequately
controlled studies that swimming with dolphins is a particularly effective
therapy, several hypotheses have been proposed to explain how DAT works. One
guess is that
dolphins emit healing energy vibrations. Rosemary Angelis, a Psychic Artist
and Vibrational Energy Facilitator, claims she can channel dolphin energy
and that if one places a palm over
a picture of a dolphin that she's drawn one can "receive the sensation
of their loving healing energies." This method would at least avoid
the cruelty of capturing and tanking dolphins for human purposes.
Another speculation is that the ultrasound from the
echolocation clicks of dolphins does the healing by stimulating the
endocrine system.
Birch and Cole showed that subjects’
brain waves change significantly in frequency and amplitude after swimming
with dolphins compared to the measurements before the swimming. There were
no changes in the control group that swam without dolphins. They presented
this “idea” at a conference in 1996 and since then, the public seems to want
to believe this as a fact. (Brensing)
However, Brensing and associates have studied this
issue and concluded that
... even if the dolphin produced
ultrasound continuously with a maximum power of 230 dB, the application time
of 10 seconds per patient is not long enough to be comparable to therapeutic
ultrasound in human medicine. Moreover, it seems to be practically
impossible that a dolphin can produce ultrasound over several minutes with
the maximum power directed to one certain patient. If this were indeed to
occur, there would be a serious risk that the ultrasound could also damage
the biological tissue (Brensing et al. 2003).
In any case, if ultrasound is the healing factor, why
not use ultrasound therapy?
Two British researchers speculate that the
"echolocation system, the aesthetic value, and the emotions raised by the
interaction with dolphins may explain the mammals' healing properties."*
One of the pioneers in the promotion of human-dolphin
interaction was
John Lilly, M.D., who was also a pioneer in LSD self-experimentation and
sensory deprivation research. Lilly believed that he was in psychic contact with aliens who guided him to his
work with dolphins. He considered dolphins to be psychic conduits between
aliens and humans.*
There is little reason to accept Lilly's psychic or psychotic musings.
Despite the lack of properly controlled experiments,
DAT is a popular worldwide phenomenon that is virtually unregulated. One
group, the
Upledger Foundation, is uniting it own special brand of quackery—craniosacral
therapy—with DAT. They're charging $4,500 for a 4-day program and they
will probably attract many desperate parents who will heed their appeal for
children "with diagnoses ranging from cerebral palsy to traumatic brain and
spinal cord injuries and chronic pain."
If there were not so many marine parks and
dolphinariums, there would not be so much interest in DAT. It is difficult
not to be attracted to these sea creatures with the frozen smiles, but
humans are deluding themselves if they think they know what it is like to be
a dolphin. In any case, dolphins
are wild animals and using them for our amusement or imagined well being
seems inhumane and unjustified. (Dr.
Betsy Smith, one of the pioneers of DAT for autistic children, quit her
research with captive dolphins for ethical reasons.) It is touching that so
many people have their emotions aroused and stimulated by swimming with
dolphins, but it stretches the edges of credulity to think that these
beautiful creatures desire the same thing we do: our good health and well
being.
further reading
Antonioli, Christian and Michael A. Reveley. "Randomised controlled trial of
animal facilitated therapy with dolphins in the treatment of depression."
British Medical Journal, November 26, 2005.
Brensing, Karsten. (2005).
Expert Statement on "Swim With The Dolphin Programs And Dolphin-Assisted
Therapy."
Brensing, Karsten, K. Linke, and D.Todt. (2003).
"Can dolphins heal by ultrasound?" Journal of Theoretical Biology,
225 (1): 99-105.
Buck, C. D., and J. P. Schroeder. (1990). "Public Health
Significance of Marine Mammal Diseases," in Handbook of Marine Mammal
Medicine: Health, Disease, and Rehabilitation, ed. L.A. Dierauf, pp.
163-173, CRC Press, Cleveland, OH. (A review of reported cases of humans
infected with micro-organisms acquired from direct contact with various
marine mammals is presented.)
Frohoff, T. G. and J. M. Packard. (1995). "Interactions
between humans and free-ranging and captive bottlenose dolphins."
Anthrozoös 8(1):44-54.
Humphries,Tracy L. Ph.D. (2003). "Effectiveness of Dolphin-Assisted
Therapy as a Behavioral Intervention for Young Children with Disabilities"
Lilienfeld, S., Lynn, S., & Lohr, J. (2002). Science and pseudoscience in
clinical psychology. New York: Guilford Press.
Lilly, John. (1996). The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography.
Ronan Publishing.
Marino, L. and S. Lilienfeld (1998). "Dolphin-assisted therapy: flawed data,
flawed conclusions." Anthrozoos, 11(4), 194-200.
Samuels A. and T. Spradlin.(1995). "Quantitative
behavioural study of bottlenose dolphins in swim-with-dolphin programs in
the United States." Marine Mammal Science 11(4):520-544.
Smith, Betsy A. (1996). Dolphin Assisted Therapy.
Tokyo: Kodansha Publishers.
Webster, L. S., D. T. Neil, and C. A. Madden. (1998).
"Dolphin-initiated inter- and intra-specific contact and aggression during
provisioning at Tangalooma." Special Topic report, Department of
Geographical Sciences and Planning and School of Marine Science, The
University of Queensland.
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Dogon and Sirius II
