Pets Can Have Depression, Too

宠物也患抑郁症

By Alia Hoyt

文/阿利亚·霍伊特

译/李品阳

审订/孙丽冰

When Sara Palmer’s Yorkie Kingston suddenly stopped eating or drinking, she feared a serious medical condition. Although relieved when he was cleared of anything immediately life-threatening, a diagnosis of doggie depression threw her for a loop¹. Her family had recently moved to another state, and the poor pooch was simply unequipped to communicate or handle the stress fallout. “He was given an IV² and meds to take for a while,” she recalls. “He got better but still acts strange when he knows we’re going on a trip.”

莎拉·帕尔默的约克夏犬金斯顿突然不吃不喝，她担心爱犬患了重病。虽然检查后排除了即刻危及生命的重疾，这让莎拉松了口气，但一纸抑郁症诊断书却让她大吃一惊。莎拉一家不久前搬到了另一个州，而这只可怜的小狗根本无法传达，也应对不了新环境带来的焦虑。“给他输了一次液，也喂了一段时间的药。”莎拉回忆道，“情况有所好转。不过，知道我们要去旅行时，他的行为还是有些反常。

When it comes to mental health issues, domestic pets like cats and dogs aren’t as different from us as we once thought. “We have recognized many different types of mental illness in pet animals,” explains Dr. Franklin D. McMillan, a veterinarian and director of wellbeing studies at Best Friends Animal Society. “The parallels between human and animal mental illnesses have been demonstrated by several types of evidence, such as similarities in behavior, physiological measures, brain scans, and response to medications.”

说到心理健康问题，猫狗这样的家养宠物并不像我们曾经以为的那样会有别于人类。“我们已经在宠物身上发现了多种不同类型的精神疾病。”动物之友协会的动物身心健康研究主任、兽医富兰克林·D.麦克米伦博士如是说道，“有多种证据证实人类精神疾病和动物精神疾病之间存在相似性，体现在行为、生理指标、脑部扫描和药物反应等方面。”

He adds that the most commonly seen mental illnesses in pets include phobias, compulsive disorders (like constant tail-licking), post-traumatic stress, depression and separation anxiety.

他补充说，宠物最常见的精神疾病包括恐惧症、强迫症（如不停舔尾巴）、创伤后应激障碍、抑郁症和分离焦虑症等。

Some mental-health triggers are unavoidable—reaction to noise—or due to life changes. Other triggers are the result of abuse, excessive loneliness, neglect or poor living conditions. Still others are head-scratchers³.

有些诱发精神健康问题的因素是不可避免的，如噪声引起的应激反应或者生活中的变化。有些诱因则是虐待、过度孤独、被忽视或者糟糕的生活环境。还有一些因素尚未明确。

“Some of the mental illnesses we see in pet animals can occur for no identifiable reason,” McMillan says. “We know that genetics plays a role in certain psychological conditions. For example, studies have shown that fear of humans can be increased in dogs through selective breeding.”

“宠物患上某些精神疾病可能没有明确的原因。”麦克米伦说，“我们知道遗传会影响某些心理状况。例如，研究表明，通过选择育种出生的狗更加恐惧人类。”

Certain breeds have a predisposition to mental health problems, although it’s hardly set in stone⁴. McMillan notes that some compulsive behaviors are seen more often in Dobermans and bull terriers than in the general population of dogs. But the reasons for this are a mystery.

尽管很难下定论，但某些犬种更容易出现精神健康问题。麦克米伦指出，与普通犬种相比，杜宾犬和牛头㹴更常表现出强迫行为。然而其中的原因还是个谜。

“Overall, any dog can be at risk for developing these types of mental disorders. However, when an animal’s environment is far removed from that which they were bred for, such as herding or working breeds in dogs or wild animals living in captivity, the chance for acquired mental disease is far greater,” emails Dr. Richard Goldstein, a veterinarian with Animal Medical Center in New York City.

“总的来说，任何狗都有可能罹患这些精神疾病。然而，如果动物所处的环境与曾经的成长环境相差甚远，如圈养牧羊犬、工作犬或野生动物，那么它们患精神疾病的机率就会大得多。”纽约市动物医疗中心的兽医理查德·戈尔茨坦博士在邮件中写道。

Making the diagnosis

诊断

Diagnosing a nonverbal furry friend’s mental illness is challenging. Lynn Frye discovered this the hard way when her once-spunky golden retriever died following months of treatment for depression (suspected because she started vomiting intermittently during and after a home move).

诊断不会说话的“毛孩子”是否罹患精神疾病具有挑战性。林恩·弗赖伊经历了伤痛后对此深有体会。她曾经活泼好动的金毛寻回犬从搬家开始就出现间歇性呕吐，疑似得了抑郁症，接受几个月的抑郁症治疗后还是去世了。

However, the true problem was a towel, left inside the pup when she was spayed, that eventually blocked her intestines. “I warn others not to take a depression diagnosis at face value⁵, especially if their dog has recently had surgery,” Frye says. “It didn’t feel right at the time and I’ll always wonder if I could have done more. When she was officially diagnosed with the blockage and died, my immediate thoughts went back to how she was so sick shortly after the surgery and they said she was depressed. It made me sick to think that had I pushed for a different diagnosis we might have caught it.”

然而，真正的原因是这只小狗在做绝育手术时有块手术巾落在了她体内，最终堵塞了她的肠道。“警告其他养狗人士，不要轻信抑郁症诊断结果，尤其是在狗狗近期做了手术的情况下。”弗赖伊说道，“当时我就感觉情况不对劲，我一直在想，要是能多做些什么就好了。她正式被诊断为因肠道堵塞而离去的时候，我立刻回想起做完绝育手术后不久她无精打采的模样。医生说她得了抑郁症。如果我坚持要求医生重做诊断，兴许就能发现问题。想到这一点，我就懊恼不已。”

Although Frye’s case is pretty rare, it highlights the difficulties with pet diagnoses. “Because we can’t ask pets what they are thinking or feeling, the only clues we have to determine whether a pet’s mental status is good is by assessing their behavior,” says Dr. Jessica Vogelsang, a veterinarian with Pawcurious, a pet-centered website. Some of the hallmarks of canine depression, she says, include decreased appetite, acting disoriented or lost at home, a sudden onset of aggression, lack of interest in exercise, sleeping more than normal and regression in housetraining.

弗赖伊的情况极为罕见，却说明宠物疾病诊断并非易事。“我们没法询问宠物的想法或感受，所以判断它们精神状态好坏的唯一途径就是评估其行为。”宠物网站“好奇爪”的兽医杰茜卡·福格尔桑博士说道。她还指出，犬类抑郁症的典型症状包括食欲减退，精神萎靡地待在家里，突然变得有攻击性，懒得活动，嗜睡，家庭行为训练能力退化等。

But just because your pup is exhibiting these signs doesn’t mean it is depressed. “The first step is to visit the veterinarian and make sure there isn’t a medical condition that is causing the change in behavior,” Vogelsang says. “You’d be astounded at the number of ‘depressed’ older dogs who were actually arthritic, and pepped up with proper pain management.”

但是仅凭爱犬表现出上述症状，并不能说明它得了抑郁症。“首先要带它去看兽医，确保不是生理病况导致的行为异常。”福格尔桑说道，“很多‘抑郁了的’老年狗其实只是患上了关节炎，适当的药物治疗后疼痛就能缓解，它们便会恢复活力。这种病例的数量之多，可能会让你大为震惊。”

If your pet has been given a medical all-clear and is still having behavioral issues, then behavioral modification, medication or a combination of both might be the solution. Some of the prescription labels might even sound familiar. “Most medications are similar to those used to treat humans with parallel disorders,” Dr. Goldstein says. For instance, the antidepressant Prozac has been used to treat people, dogs and cats—the pet version just has a different name.

如果体检显示宠物身体并无大碍，但其行为仍然失常，那么行为矫正、药物治疗或者两者结合可能会是解决问题之道。一些处方可能听上去会很耳熟。“对于相似的精神疾病，大部分用来治疗宠物的药物和用来治疗人类的相差无几。”戈尔茨坦博士说道。例如，治疗人类的抗抑郁药百忧解也已用于治疗狗和猫，宠物用的只不过换了个药名而已。

（译者单位：中国科学院大学）

注释：

 

1. throw sb for a loop 使震惊，使吃惊。

 

2. = intravenous 静脉注射。

 

3. head-scratcher 令人费解的事物。

 

4. be set in stone 确定不变的，已下定论的。

 

5. take sth at face value 相信表面。