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‘Person’-alities in Veterinary Patients

By Narda G. Robinson, DO, DVM, MS, FAAMA

Validating assessment strategies in Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine (TCVM) has proceeded slower than a snail. Compared to the stacks of books and courses that teach and tout tongue and pulse diagnosis, practically no science supports either measure.

Scientific testing, immune to the allure of myth and magic that seduce so many, removes the cloak of metaphysics and thereby uncovers the naked truth about TCVM.

One assessment method that could earn legitimacy is the Five Phases personality inventory. Five Phases philosophy arose in early China to aid in predicting natural phenomena by placing all of existence into one or more of the five categories.¹

When applied to seasons—spring, summer, harvest time, autumn, and winter—the Five Phases correspond poetically to the life cycle. Wood, the season of spring, describes a period of exuberant growth leading to Fire, the season of summer, when beauty flowers and reproductive capacities mature. The seedlings planted in spring and summer bear fruit in harvest time like mothers giving birth. As time marches on, fertility wanes and fluids recede. By winter, vibrancy yields to dormancy, handing over the process of living to the seeds left behind. 

Clinicians employing the Five Phases model say it helps them understand patients’ biopsychotypes and thereby foresee or prevent illness. For example:

• Meticulous Metal types operate best within a structured environment and clear expectations.  Emotional minimalists, they may appear aloof and distant but suffer internally from depression and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The dryness of autumn worsens their predisposition to dry stools, dry skin and dry cough.
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• Wood individuals exude confidence, competitiveness, and leadership. Wood types express their stress through redness in the eyes and exudates in the ears.
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• Fire personalities, like the summer, are colorful and buzzing with activity. Charismatic Fire craves attention and affection. Overstimulation may put their hearts and minds in overdrive, promoting rhythm irregularities and insomnia.
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• Earth individuals care for others and live to be needed. Worry causes them to overeat, customarily seeking sweets; their routine digestive disturbances revolve around diarrhea.
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• Water personalities, the opposite of Fire, seek solitude. When forced to interact, Waters become fearful and may lash out if pushed. Body parts and tissues associated with the Water phase include the kidneys, urinary bladder, bones, teeth, ears and brain.

A nice story, but how much of this actually holds up? Studies in animal personality research have grown considerably over the past two decades, verifying that animals exhibit personality traits like humans’, transcending species and sometimes breed boundaries.^2-6 Research also reveals that animal temperaments can be studied objectively.⁷ 

Western personality psychologists have corroborated the Five Phases in animals in part by identifying five personality “factors,” putatively arising in response to natural selection pressures involved in finding mates or food.⁸

Associations between personalities and physical proclivities have come about more slowly, and some evidence conflicts with Five Phases assumptions. A handful of studies has examined the connection between gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV) and temperament. Dogs deemed “happy” demonstrated a significantly reduced risk of developing GDV.⁹ Seasonal variation in the frequency of GDV was shown in one study¹⁰ but refuted in another.¹¹ Research on the pathogenetic interplay between anxiety and otovestibular disorders (hearing loss, imbalance) supports the correspondences of Water involving the ear, brain, and fear.¹² These reports as well as studies linking genes to anxiety, personality and brain function have deepened the understanding of a biologic basis of personality.^13-15

Conclusion

“Weed through the past to bring forth the new” was a slogan adopted by Chinese communists seeking to modernize Chinese medicine and integrate it with Western approaches.¹⁶ Leaders in the development and promotion of TCM—the human counterpart of TCVM—have noted that the gems of wisdom contained in its treasure house are stored alongside “erroneous and extraneous” matter that must be left behind.¹⁷
The gem of the Five Phases system is its usefulness in personality profiling. Complementarity in personality between people and their pets can spell the difference between a “forever” home and a revolving shelter door or euthanasia.¹⁸-²⁰

Five Phases’ erroneous and extraneous matter that should be left behind are those ideas, actively promoted in the West, that Five Phases acupuncture techniques can bestow spiritual salvation²¹ or cure breast cancer.²² Acupuncture points sorted into Five Phases categories lack not only anatomical relevance to non-humans, but also physiologic justification in any species and scientific proof of merit. <HOME>

Narda Robinson, DVM, DO, Dipl. ABMA, FAAMA, offers an evidential and scientific perspective on  complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. She oversees complementary veterinary education at Colorado State University.

This article first appeared in the February 2010 issue of Veterinary Practice News

FOOTNOTES

1. Bennetts G.  Constitutional Five-Element acupuncture.  Journal of the Australian Traditional-Medicine Society.  2007;13(3):159-162.

2. Draper TW.  Canine analogs of human personality factors.  The Journal of General Psychology.  1995;122(3):241-252.

3. Lee CM, Ryan JJ, and Kreiner.  Personality in domestic cats.  Pscyhological Reports.  2007;100:27-29.

4. Morris PH, Gale A, and Howe S.  The factor structure of horse personality.  Anthrozoos.  2002;15(4):300-322.

5. Lloyd AS, Martin JE, Bornett-Gauci HLI, et al.  Horse personality:  variation between breeds.  Applied Animal Behaviour Science.  2008;112:369-383.

6. Gosling SD, Kwan VSY, and John OP.  A dog’s got personality:  a cross-species comparative approach to personality judgments in dogs and humans.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.  2003;85(6):1161-1169.

7. Visser EK, Van Reenen CG, Rundgren M, et al.  Responses of horses in behavioural tests correlate with temperament assessed by riders.  Equine Veterinary Journal.  2003;35(2):176-183.

8. Draper TW.  Canine analogs of human personality factors.  The Journal of General Psychology.  1995;122(3):241-252.

9. Glickman LT, Glickman NW, Schellenberg DB, et al.  Multiple risk factors for the gastric dilatation-volvulus syndrome in dogs:  a practitioner/owner case-control study.  J Am Anim Hosp Assoc.  1997;33:197-204.

10. Herbold JR, Moore GE, Gosch TL, et al.  Relationship between incidence of gastric dilatation-volvulus and biometeorologic events in a population of military working dogs.  Am J Vet Res.  2002;63:47-52.

11. Dennler R, Koch D, Hassig M, et al.  Climatic conditions as a risk factor in canine gastric dilatation-volvulus.   The Veterinary Journal.  2005;169:97-101.

12. Kalueff AV, Ishikawa K, and Griffith AJ.  Review. Anxiety and otovestibular disorders:  Linking behavioral phenotypes in men and mice.  Behavioural Brain Research.  2008;186:1-11.

13. Smoller JW, Paulus MP, Fagerness JA, et al.  Influence of RGS2 on anxiety-related temperament, personality, and brain function.  Arch Gen Psychiatry.  2008;65(3):298-308.

14. Kalueff AV and Murphy DL.  The importance of cognitive phenotypes in experimental modeling of animal anxiety and depression.  Neural Plasticity.  2007; Article ID 52087, 7 pages.

15. Kalueff AV, Ren-Patterson RF, LaPorte JL, et al.  Domain interplay concept in animal models of neuropsychiatric disorders:  a new strategy for high-throughput neurophenotyping research.  Behavioural Brain Research.   2000;188:243-249. 

16. Dharmananda S.  Understanding Chinese Medicine.  Obtained on 12-22-09 here.

17. Dharmananda S. Understanding Chinese Medicine.  Obtained through  ITM online on 12-24-09 here.

18. Woodward LE and Bauer AL. People and their pets:  a relational perspective in interpersonal complementarity and attachment in companion animal owners.  Society and Animals.  2007;15:169-189.

19. Kubinyi E, Turcsan B, and Miklosi A.  Dog and owner demographic characteristics and dog personality trait associations.  Behavioural Processes.  2009;81:392-401.

20. Kotrshcal K, Schoberl I, Bauer B, et al.  Dyadic relationships and operational performance of male and female owners and their male dogs.  Behavioural Processes.  2009;81:383-391.

21. Abramson RJ.  Five-Element acupuncture:  a body-mind-spirit system of healing:  an interview with Robert J. Abramson, DDS, MD, Mac.  Advances.  2005;21(2):19-21.

22. Thoresen AS.  Interim clinical results on acupuncture in cancer treatment:  notes from my casebook.  The Medical Acupuncture Web Page.  Obtained online on 12-22-09 here.  

 Give us your opinion on
‘Person’-alities in Veterinary Patients

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Dr. Levy, If you would like to debate the content of my columns, I would be happy to discuss this material further with you, either in this forum or via email. However, there is really no need to resort to ad hominem attacks. I assure you that my degrees in osteopathic medicine and veterinary medicine are both "real". I have been practicing medicine since 1988, and most of that time, I have provided integrative medical care and still do every week. In addition, I am the only professor at a veterinary college whose position is focused on teaching, researching, and providing scientifically-based and evidentially supported complementary and alternative veterinary medicine. Thus, I can assure you that I have experience in the modalities I discuss, and even in ones I haven't yet broached. I can see, though, that you are unable to understand my articles, as you admitted in your comments. Perhaps I can help. In this month's column, I support Five Phases personality inventories and discuss why I find it useful, based on the literature. In January, I supported a wide array of herbal treatments based on the canine research literature. In December, I came out in favor of massage for veterinary patients, based on anatomy and physiology. In November, I came out in favor of protecting veterinary medicine from the infiltration of metaphysics. In October, I advocated learning as much as we can about vitamins and how they work so that we can help our clients understand how best to ensure that their animal companions receive the nutrients they need. And so on. They are by no means "anti everything". I know it may be uncomfortable to hear information that may challenge some of your beliefs, but given that this is the only column of its kind, i.e., one that considers the scientific basis of, and research literature concerning, various holistic topics on a monthly basis, it is one of the few avenues through which those who are interested in a fact-based approach to integrative medicine can learn about these topics. Why would you want to begrudge the veterinary community of an opportunity to hear information that is backed up by scientific, rational thought and research? I applaud Veterinary Practice News for providing a forum for truth. Dr. Narda, Fort Collins, CO Posted: 3/2/2010 1:13:01 PM Is it possible to find somebody to write this column who has experience in the modalities described, rather than someone who spouts random thought patterns that don't seem to relate to one another? Half the time I can't even understand what Dr. Robinson is going on about, except that she sure seems mad about something. Can you get a real doctor to write this column, please? Now that Dr. Robinson has proved that she is anti everything, I think we've heard enough of her ramblings. Dr. Jessica Levy, Blaine, MN Posted: 3/2/2010 11:51:21 AM By the way, Dr. X, your assumption that "the studies that have been completed will continue to be funded by the big pharma companies who subsidize the university of which you are part" is also misguided, perhaps clouded by the belief systems you hold so strongly. The fact is that there was no Big Pharma financial support for either of my tongue diagnosis publications. Dr. Narda, Fort Collins, CO Posted: 3/2/2010 6:05:56 AM The only agenda here is truth, unsullied by belief systems. That's the beauty of applying the scientific method to our observations -- they eliminate the impact of a teacher's charisma and charm on what we want to believe are true outcomes and allow reproducible effects to stand on their own merit. If there really was a 5-element acupuncture cure for cancer, that would be a wonderful thing for the world to have access to. Why haven't others reported cures? Where are the reports in peer-reviewed cancer journals? Gee -- if one could cure cancer with 30 cents' worth of acupuncture needles, wouldn't that turn medical history on its axis and improve people's and animal's lives around the world? You might also re-read my articles on tongue diagnosis. We found some associations and reported them. It was actually a somewhat favorable article for tongue diagnosis. There was no agenda to disprove, only to study from a standpoint of intellectual curiosity. However, our two studies in however many thousands of years of Chinese medicine do not constitute proof of the validity of tongue diagnosis. They are merely the beginning. Dr. Narda, Fort Collins, CO Posted: 3/1/2010 7:33:12 PM