Man and the common dog: a common neuropsychiatric pathology?

Psychiatrists and veterinary surgeons use the same medical terminology to describe the neuropsychiatric disorders observed in man and dog. While articulated language can only be produced by man, the dog possesses an organised system of sound and gestual signals allowing communication with their fellow creatures. Moreover, the dog presents a number of behavioral abnormalities which resemble those of human psychiatric pathology, such as stress, anxiety, depression, phobia, obsessive-compulsive rituals, dysthymia, “psychotic” dissociation, hyperactivity-impulsivity, sociopathy and senile dementia. Some nosographic entities of “madness” would therefore not seem to be specifically human, despite the risk of anthropomorphism in the clinical description of behavioral disorders in dogs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]