Behavioural changes in dogs with acral lick dermatitis during a 2 month extension phase of fluoxetine treatment
✍ Scribed by Dora Wynchank; Michael Berk
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 74 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6222
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Acral lick dermatitis (ALD) is a condition described in dogs that is believed to be an animal model of obsessive± compulsive disorder (OCD) in humans. In both conditions, serotonergic neural dysfunction is believed to be responsible for aberrant grooming behaviour. ALD is the ®rst animal model proposed for a psychiatric condition. Serotonergic antidepressants are recommended as ®rst line treatment in OCD. However, many patients have been discouraged from using these by reports of aggression and suicide-inducing eects of these drugs. This study examined behavioural eects of a 2 month extension phase of ¯uoxetine treatment in dogs previously diagnosed with ALD. A 2 month extension phase on ¯uoxetine 20 mg daily, immediately followed on a 6 week double blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trial of ¯uoxetine in 63 dogs with ALD, diagnosed for at least 6 months. The Dodman scales measured excitability, fearfulness, dominance and territorial aggression at the start and end of the 2 month extension phase. Excitability was rated in four settings, referred to as questions 1 to 4. Fifty-four dogs completed the extension phase. Three subjects were withdrawn with no reason given, one for vomiting on ¯uoxetine. At the end of the extension phase, the analysis of variance showed no signi®cant dierence between dogs who received placebo or ¯uoxetine during the original trial, for scores of fearfulness ( p 0 . 127), dominance ( p 0 . 274) or territorial aggression ( p 0 . 172). Excitability also caused no signi®cant dierence on the four questions ( p 1 0 . 822, p 2 0 . 607, p 3 0 . 975, p 4 0 . 820). After the extension phase, owners assessed dogs as being neither more aggressive nor anxious. Particularly, there was no dierence in levels of dominance aggression ( p 1). Using the paired t-test there was no statistically signi®cant dierence between scores obtained both at the end of the 6 week trial and the extension phase for fearfulness ( p 0 . 128), dominance aggression ( p 1 . 0), territorial aggression ( p 0 . 422) and excitability ( p 1 0 . 487, p 2 0 . 571, p 3 0 . 711, p 4 0 . 086). These results may serve to refute further the reports of the emergence of impulsive aggression in human subjects on ¯uoxetine treatment as no signi®cant behavioural changes were noted in the dogs treated with ¯uoxetine for ALD.