The Psychotic Dog
A psychosis is defined as a mental disorder of such degree that there is personality disintegration and loss of contact with reality. The line between neurotic and psychotic behavior is not well defined, even by psychiatrists and psychologists. Two existing criteria can be added to the description of a neurotic dog to describe, for this reason, a psychotic behavior. These involve situation in which the dog’s behavior is risky to himself or to the safety of others, and in which the dog appears to be unaware of the behavior during and/or very soon thereafter his actions.
If only the first standard were to be applied to biting or self-mutilating dogs, then they would inaccurately be considered psychotic. In fact, many people believe that any biting dog should be labeled as a “psycho” and destroyed right away, in spite of the conditions. On the other hand, if the second element applies, and the dog is unaware of his behavior, it would seem rational to apply the psychotic label. The dog that appears to have withdrawn from reality or suffers episodes of withdrawal could be either psychotic or physically ill. If the behavior fits the fundamental neurotic model and is also in some way damaging to life or well-being, then the animal may be psychotic, if otherwise healthy.
Dogs that are defined as psychotic have included the following symptoms: Dogs that suffer “avalanches” of anger for no clinical reasons and do not react to external stimuli; manic-depressive animals that hesitate between depression and wild activity; and depressed dogs that fail to reply even to powerful stimuli, such as hunger, as when dogs starve to death in the presence of food. These cases have been seen in pet dogs as well as laboratory animals. The temper and manic-depressive states happen mainly in excitable types, whereas depression typically occurs in those with inhibitive tendencies. Some notable factors in the medical histories of apparently psychotic pet dogs are listed below.
* Early distemper (before 3 months of age).
* Serious parasitic infection (before 6 months of age).
* Severe beatings.
* Accidental injury, mainly to the spine and/or head.
* Accidental drug overdose.
* Prolonged corticosteroid or other drug therapy.
* Diabetes
* Extreme psychic trauma.
The underlying physical problems are rarely, if ever, investigated with the similar dedication applied to humans with parallel conditions. As a result, the dogs are usually destroyed, which solves the owner’s immediate problem, but offers no development toward understanding of the problem’s causes.
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