Depressed? Swim with dolphins

Does this explain why so many dolphin trainers have such pleasant dispositions?Paris - Taking a dip with dolphins can be a tremendous therapy for people with depression, according to a study published on Saturday in the weekly British Medical Journal (BMJ). ... [P]sychiatrists Christian Antonioli and Michael Reveley at Britain's University of Leicester, recruited 30 people in the United States and Honduras who had been diagnosed with mild or moderate depression. The severity of their symptoms was calculated according to established yardsticks for mental health, the Hamilton and Beck scales, which are based on interviews and questionnaires with the patient. ... Two weeks later, both groups had improved, but especially so among patients who had been swimming with the dolphins. Measurable symptoms of depression in the dolphin group had fallen by half and by two-thirds according to the two scales - twice as much as in the non-dolphin group.I can think of ten studies that should be done to follow this up -- are there other activities that produce similar results? are there other animals with whom this happens, for example, dogs? does the difference between the control and experimental groups diminish with time, as subjects become acclimated to the dolphins? -- but for now, it's just nice to see that the therapeutic benefits of positive human-animal interaction are being studied. For more stories of dolphin training, check out Lads Before the Wind, Karen Pryor's experiences training dolphins in Hawaii. Read the full story: Depressed? Swim with dolphins