• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Question / Animal / Biopsychosocial

Asa

Senior Member
Messages
179
Not sure where to post this.... but was wondering if proponents of the biopsychosocial model ever advocate for it to be implemented into research within the (non-human) animal kingdom.

Also, if "medically-unexplained-symptoms" is allegedly valid for humans, why wouldn't it also be valid for the (non-human) animal kingdom?
 

Keela Too

Sally Burch
Messages
900
Location
N.Ireland
Interesting question.

In the animal training world (or at least dogs and horses, the two areas I'm familiar with) the message is always to look for health issues if the animal is not performing as before. If anyone should suggest that the animal is faking lameness or illness to get out of doing something, then others on social media round on them.

It seems those who police social media are less kind when the individual in question is human.
 
Messages
13,774
Some of it seems influenced by work on training animals - B.f. Skinner did lots of animals stuff. Also, I think that the 'learned helplessness' stuff came from torturing animals?
 

Invisible Woman

Senior Member
Messages
1,267
Some of it seems influenced by work on training animals - B.f. Skinner did lots of animals stuff. Also, I think that the 'learned helplessness' stuff came from torturing animals?

Says it all. If they are the types who think torturing an animal is ok to try to prove some dodgy theory, do we really feel that these people should have any role in the care of the sick and vulnerable?
 

wastwater

Senior Member
Messages
1,270
Location
uk
My friend who has me/cfs ,her cat recently died of leukaemia,but it wasn't to do with feline leukaemia virus ( Felv)and considered a mystery,animals tend to try hide there illness,no one knew until the final stages
 

Keela Too

Sally Burch
Messages
900
Location
N.Ireland
Here's another interesting way that people and animals are treated differently.

When my dog Finn was young, a jar of peanut butter was knocked to the floor when we were out of the kitchen. We came back in to see that he had eaten most of the contents, but more worryingly also a lot of the glass was missing!
I sought the help of Google (try this if you like :p )

Veterinary advice: Take him immediately to the nearest vet for observation and probable operation to surgically remove the offending glass shards.

Human advice (okay actually concerning your child eating glass): Feed bulky foods such as bread and pastato move the glass through the gut in a cushioned mass of food. Keep an eye on the child, but rest assured that probably the glass would pass without harm. Only if the child had abdominal pain should medical help be sought.

I decided Finn was like my child so followed that advice. Happily he passed the glass shards the next day and all was well (the event was 2 years ago now).

Interesting nonetheless how different the advice was.