31 Aug 2021
Study found that all 19 dogs involved demonstrated more affiliative behavioural changes when confronted by seizure-associated odours, compared with their response to control odours.
James Westgate
Job Title
Image: Nicooografie / Pixabay
New research led by Queen’s University Belfast has shown that dogs can predict epileptic seizures.
The study analysed the reaction of dogs to odours associated with epileptic seizures and found that the dogs could predict when a seizure was imminent.
Epilepsy is a debilitating and potentially life-threatening neurological condition that affects approximately 65 million people worldwide, of whom 30% (20 million) are unable to control their seizures by medication.
Currently no reliable early warning seizure-onset device is available, and while there have been anecdotal accounts of pet dogs predicting their owner’s epileptic seizures by becoming attentive and by demonstrating attention-seeking behaviours, to date no scientific study has investigated the veracity of these claims.
Lead researcher Neil Powell, from the School of Biological Sciences at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “We hypothesised that, given the extraordinary sense of smell of dogs, a volatile organic compound exhaled by the dog’s epileptic owner may provide an early warning trigger mechanism to which make dogs react before the seizure.
“The results have shown pet dogs to be a reliable source to detect an onset seizure.”
Researchers explored how a cohort of pet dogs reacted to the emergence of seizure-associated odours.
Using two specially designed pieces of apparatus called the remote odour delivery mechanism, the researchers separately delivered epileptic seizure-associated odours and non-seizure associated odours, and recorded the reactions of the dogs to each.
Using 19 pet dogs with no experience of epilepsy, the researchers exposed them to odours deemed characteristic of three seizure phases, by using sweat harvested from people with epilepsy.
By altering the alternating odours emerging from sweat samples, captured before seizure, during a seizure and after a seizure – and two non-seizure controls – the researchers recorded the response of the 19 pet dogs.
They found that all 19 dogs demonstrated more affiliative behavioural changes when confronted by seizure-associated odours, compared with their response to control odours.
Dr Powell added: “Our findings clearly showed that all dogs reacted to the seizure-associated odour, whether this was through making eye contact with their owner, touching them, crying or barking. There is a unique volatile smell linked to epileptic seizures, detectable by dogs that can in turn warn their owner a seizure is likely to occur.”
