Swedish doctor talks about dogs sensing epilepsy

My name is Per Åmark and I am a senior physician in child neurology at the Astrid Lindgren Children's Hospital [in Stockholm, Sweden] and I have worked for many years with children with epilepsy. That was probably why I was asked to participate a little in this project as a medical expert and medical advisor.

At the beginning I looked a little bit after what's been more scientifically done about this with dogs and epilepsy and it's really very little that is done. Much has been focused on the possibility that dogs could help patients with epilepsy to detect attacks and take action in connection with the attack. And that was what was a little the starting point when the project started.

During this project, many other aspects have come to be highlighted, perhaps even more important with the results that the young people who had their dogs have been able to get a greater independence, better privacy and several other effects not only related to that dogs can detect seizures and alert at attacks.

In the future we hope of course that this can be spread so that it may be more people who can get their dogs trained or have dogs trained for this purpose. So that knowledge can be broadened and we can see better the role that a dog can have in the work of helping people with epilepsy.

“And this
is just the beginning…”

The film is part of the project "Service dogs' impact on young people with epilepsy" and was funded by the General Inheritance Fund.

We want to thank the General
Heritage Fund who made ​​it possible to
implement the project.

We would also like to thank
the participating youth and
their parents.

Camera: Emma Jonsson

Editing: Jane Hawes

[Translated by Elisabeth Magnusson Rune]