Laboratory for Ethology, Department of Nutrition, Genetics and Ethology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Belgium.
Department of Neurology, Ghent University Hospital, Belgium.
Epilepsy Behav. 2019 May;94:104-111. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Mar 18.
The unpredictability of epileptic seizures is considered an important threat to the quality of life of a person with epilepsy. Currently, however, there are no tools for seizure prediction that can be applied to the domestic setting. Although the information about seizure-alert dogs - dogs that display changes in behavior before a seizure that are interpreted by the owner as an alert - is mostly anecdotal; living with an alerting dog (AD) has been reported to improve quality of life of the owner by reducing the stress originating from the unpredictability of epileptic seizures and, sometimes, diminishing the seizure frequency.
The aim of the study was to investigate, at an international level, the behaviors displayed by trained and untrained dogs that are able to anticipate seizures and to identify patient- and dog-related factors associated with the presence or absence of alerting behavior.
An online questionnaire for dog owners with seizures was designed. Information about the participants (demographics, seizure type, presence of preictal symptoms) and their dogs (demographics, behavior around the time of seizures) was collected. In addition, two validated scales were included to measure the human-dog relationship (Monash Dog-Owner Relationship scale (MDORS)) and five different traits of the dogs' personality (Monash Canine Personality Questionnaire refined (MCPQ-R)).
Two hundred and twenty-seven responses of people experiencing seizures were received from six participant countries: 132 from people with dogs that had started alerting spontaneously, 10 from owners of trained AD, and the rest from owners of dogs that did not display any alerting behavior (nonalerting dog (NAD)). Individuals' gender, age, or seizure type did not predict the presence of alerting behavior in their dogs. People who indicated that they experience preictal symptoms were more likely to have a spontaneously AD. The owner-dog bond was significantly higher with ADs compared with NADs, and ADs scored significantly higher than NADs in the personality traits "Amicability", "Motivation", and "Training focus".
This study collected a large group of dog owners with seizures reporting behavioral changes in their dogs before their seizures occurred. This was associated with the presence of preictal symptoms. The seizure-alerting behavior of the dog may have a positive influence on the bond between the owner and the dog.
癫痫发作的不可预测性被认为是影响癫痫患者生活质量的重要因素。然而，目前还没有可以应用于国内环境的癫痫预测工具。尽管关于癫痫预警犬的信息——即能够在癫痫发作前表现出行为变化，并被主人解读为预警的犬——大多是轶事，但与预警犬（AD）一起生活已被报道可以通过减轻癫痫发作不可预测性带来的压力来提高主人的生活质量，有时还可以减少癫痫发作的频率。
本研究旨在在国际范围内调查经过训练和未经训练的犬在能够预测癫痫发作时表现出的行为，并确定与预警行为的存在或缺失相关的患者和犬相关因素。
设计了一份针对癫痫患者的在线犬主人问卷。收集了参与者（人口统计学信息、发作类型、发作前症状的存在情况）和他们的犬（人口统计学信息、发作前后的行为）的信息。此外，还纳入了两个经过验证的量表来衡量人与犬的关系（莫纳什犬主关系量表（MDORS））和犬的五个不同个性特征（莫纳什犬个性问卷精炼版（MCPQ-R））。
从六个参与国家收到了 227 名癫痫患者的回复：132 名来自有犬自发预警的患者，10 名来自经过训练的 AD 犬的主人，其余来自没有表现出任何预警行为的犬（非预警犬（NAD））的主人。个体的性别、年龄或发作类型并不能预测其犬是否具有预警行为。那些表示自己有发作前症状的人更有可能有自发的 AD 犬。与 NAD 相比，AD 犬的主人与犬的关系更为密切，并且 AD 犬在“友善”、“动机”和“训练焦点”等个性特征方面的得分明显高于 NAD 犬。
本研究收集了一大群患有癫痫的犬主人报告他们的犬在癫痫发作前发生行为变化。这与发作前症状的存在有关。犬的癫痫预警行为可能对主人与犬之间的关系产生积极影响。
