CASE REPORTS   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2009 August;168(4):269-72

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Psychomotor improvement from dog-ownership in MELAS syndrome

Finsterer J. ¹, Stöllberger C. ²

¹ Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Wien, Austria; ² 2nd Medical Department, Krankenanstalt Rudolfstiftung, Wien, Austria

The aim of this paper was to report the effect of pet-ownership on mental and physical abilities in a patient with MELAS syndrome. Pet-ownership is well known to be beneficial in stimulating physical activity and enhancing social contacts of patients with various disorders. The paper is a clinical observation in a single patient. In a 38-year-old ex-professional ski-runner with MELAS syndrome due to an AÆG transition at np8381 in the ATPase8 gene, manifesting as anarthria, epilepsy, hemihypesthesia, depression, weakness, wasting, and wheel-chair-boundness, provision of a dog resulted in marked reduction of seizure-frequency, and the dosage of the anti-epileptic drugs. The intensive relationship with the dog also improved mobility, physical fitness, mood, self-esteem, self-consciousness, self-confidence, and biorhythm-disturbances. Additionally, the patient’s social contacts widened and markedly ameliorated. Companionship of and responsibility for a pet improves psychomotor abilities, and stabilizes epilepsy in a severely handicapped patient with MELAS. Pet-ownership should be considered as an adjunctive measure for a disorder, for which only symptomatic and supportive therapy is available. Relevance to clinical practice: Pet-ownership may improve psychomotor abilities and stabilize epilepsy even in multimorbid patients with mitochondrial disorder.