Authors: Franklin D. McMillan
ISBN-13: 9780813804897, ISBN-10: 0813804892
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated
Date Published: May 2005
Edition: (Non-applicable)
The past few decades have seen a virtual explosion of scientific research in the area of cognition, emotions, suffering, and mental states in animals. Studies in the field, laboratory, and clinical medical practice have amassed an overwhelming body of evidence demonstrating that mental well-being is of paramount importance in all aspects of animal care. There is no longer any reasonable doubt among researchers that mental health is of equal importance as physical health and animal well-being.
Recent research convincingly shows that physical health is strongly influenced by mental states, thereby making it clear that effective health care requires attention to the emotional well-being as well as physical. Yet, for its vast importance, mental health in veterinary medicine has to date not been compiled and structured into an organized field or body of knowledge. This information, so critical to the formal establishment of the field of mental health and well-being in animals, remains scattered throughout a wide array of scientific journals.
This book represents the first authoritative reference text bringing together the most up-to-date information in the variety of subjects comprising the field of mental health and well-being in animals.
Bringing together a host of distinguished experts internationally noted in the fields of animal emotion research, animal behavior, cognitive science, and neuroscience, the book represents the first authoritative reference compiling the diverse information on the animal mind and combining the revolutionary advances in the cognitive sciences with the knowledge in veterinary medicine and clinical animal behavior. This book takes a descriptive and proscriptive approach to mental health, mixing the scientific research with practical information with clinical applications for veterinary health professionals to use in practice.
Foreword | ||
Pt. I | Foundations of animal mental health and well-being | 1 |
1 | On understanding animal mentation | 3 |
2 | The question of animal emotions : an ethological perspective | 15 |
3 | The experience of pleasure in animals | 29 |
4 | The science of suffering | 47 |
5 | Affective-social neuroscience approaches to understanding core emotional feelings in animals | 57 |
Pt. II | Emotional distress, suffering, and mental illness | 77 |
6 | Animal boredom : understanding the tedium of confined lives | 79 |
7 | Stress, distress, and emotion : distinctions and implications for mental well-being | 93 |
8 | Interrelationships between mental and physical health : the mind-body connection | 113 |
9 | Mental illness in animals - the need for precision in terminology and diagnostic criteria | 127 |
10 | Treatment of emotional distress and disorders - non-pharmacologic methods | 145 |
11 | Treatment of emotional distress and disorders - pharmacologic methods | 159 |
12 | Emotional maltreatment in animals | 167 |
Pt. III | Mental wellness | 181 |
13 | The concept of quality of life in animals | 183 |
14 | Giving power to animals | 201 |
15 | Psychological well-being in animals | 211 |
16 | Do animals experience true happiness? | 221 |
17 | Animal happiness : a philosophical view | 235 |
Pt. IV | Special populations | 243 |
18 | Mental well-being in farm animals : how they think and feel | 245 |
19 | The mental health of laboratory animals | 259 |
20 | Animal well-being and research outcomes | 277 |
21 | Mental health issues in captive birds | 285 |