Footnotes from Front Page

Autism statistics (Center for Disease Control) and Suicide statistics (CNN) and Epilepsy Foundation. Also, Weiss, Daniel S., Charles R. Marmar, William E. Schlenger, John A. Fairbank, B. Kathleen Jordan, Richard L. Hough, and Richard A. Kulka. "The prevalence of lifetime and partial post‐traumatic stress disorder in Vietnam theater veterans." Journal of Traumatic Stress 5, no. 3 (1992): 365-376. Also, Buescher, Ariane VS, Zuleyha Cidav, Martin Knapp, and David S. Mandell. "Costs of autism spectrum disorders in the United Kingdom and the United States." JAMA pediatrics 168, no. 8 (2014): 721-728. Also, The Relative Risk of Divorce in Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities: Impacts of Lifelong Parenting, Eun Ha Namkung, MSW, Jieun Song, Ph.D., [...], and Frank J. Floyd, Ph.D. 

** Pet statistics, ASPCA. Accessed 12/12/18, and UK, USA statistics.

*** Allen and Blascovich, Journal of the AMA (1996) conducted the only published study in which individuals with severe and chronic ambulatory disabilities (who required the use of wheelchairs) were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group in a paired-sample, controlled clinical trial design.  The study assessed the impact of service dogs for these participants. The results showed improvements in seven dependent measures.

*** Valentine, D.P., Kiddoo, M., & LaFleur, B, in Social Work in Health Care (1993).

*** Lane, D., McNicholas, J., & Collis, G., 1998, Applied Animal Behaviour Science 59(1-3), 49-60.