Dog bites and post-traumatic stress

Post-traumatic stress disorder is usually associated with military action or car crashes but a new study from China suggests that, for children at least, it could also be triggered off by dog bites. Researchers from the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Beijing studied 358 children aged between 5 and 17 who had been treated in casualty following an animal bite. The children were assessed for symptoms of PTSD when they arrived in casualty and a week and three months later. The study found that around 5% of the children had developed PTSD but of those children who had been hospitalized for severe bites (38) nearly a third (10) had developed PTSD. The study's authors said that developing PTSD during childhood could be particularly harmful as it could delay the normal processes of child development such as learning to read.

You can find out more about this research by clicking on the title of this post