Study Suggests Friendly Pet Owners More Resistant to Depression
A new study suggests that people who are friendly to their pets are less likely to experience symptoms of depression.
The study, conducted by a team at the Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, involved over 650 pet owning participants living in South Korea. Participants were given a survey designed to assess how friendly they were to their pets as well as the degree to which participants exhibited symptoms of depression.
Among all participants surveyed, roughly half exhibited signs of mild depression. However, those whose responses indicated that they were less friendly to their pets were more than three times as likely to have symptoms of depression when compared to those were friendly to their pets.