Pets on the Couch by Nicholas Dodman

Author:Nicholas Dodman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books

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I continued to root around in canine brain circuitry, looking for ways to prevent aggressive outbursts. Because neurotransmitters are instrumental in triggering the fight-or-flight response in animals, I searched for ways to block the action of pro-aggressive brain chemicals. If I could impede even some of their effects, I figured I could reduce the agitation and mental foment that often precedes aggressive behavior. I thought that perhaps a beta-blocker called propranolol might work, since it blocks some of the effects of a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine, but it turned out to help my animal patients only slightly and only in some cases.

Despite my standing concerns about using drugs in the Valium family because of their side effects, I cautiously started to employ them to treat aggression. I used Valium itself, which is a brand name for diazepam, as well as related medications, alprazolam and clonazepam, which are marketed as Xanax and Klonopin respectively. Through trial and error, and working out how a particular animal might react to a drug, I got some good results in reducing aggression, especially in aggressor cats.

A pair of constantly feuding cats came to see me at Tufts. The conventional first level of treatment is to separate and gradually re-introduce them to each other—called systemic desensitization. This can click the reset button for the relationship, but since they’d become entrenched in their warfare, I also tried various medications to facilitate peaceful interactions between the pair. Nothing worked. These feline fighters were displaying territorial aggression: they had dug in and were not open to detente.

It might take two cats to tango, but one of the pair clearly danced the part of the lead aggressor. After almost a year of trial and error, I tried Xanax to reduce the bully cat’s anxiety and aggression. It worked! Since then Xanax has come to the rescue in placating other angry cats, especially those who do not care for another housemate.

In even more persistent cases of aggression, I resorted to using heavy-duty antipsychotic medications, including Haldol, the brand name for a dopamine blocker called haloperidol. Simply put, dopamine acts as the chemical connection between thought and action. Without sufficient levels of dopamine in our systems, we slow down and have movement disorders, as in Parkinson’s disease. With no dopamine in our systems at all, we become immobile, the sad condition of the patients described in one of Oliver Sacks’s books, Awakenings.

When we block dopamine with drugs such as haloperidol, animals become less aggressive, but the side effects are unacceptable, and include a reduction in activity level and strange movement disorders called dyskinesias. Human patients who take strong antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia or manic depression for a long period can develop these involuntary grimaces and jerky large-muscle movements, or dyskinesias, as can dogs and horses, although animals generally do not show bizarre facial contortions as people do because they lack the same facial muscle structure and innervation.

I treated an aggressive Doberman with a dopamine blocker and warned the owner that she might see a dyskinesia in the form of head bobbing.

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