Following a recent request from a parent to write a letter of support for her son with cerebral palsy to have “dolphin therapy”, we thought we would look at the evidence base behind this. The mother was applying to a charity for funding to take her son to Florida to swim with dolphins.

Structured clinical question

In a child with cerebral palsy [patient] does swimming with dolphins [intervention] have any positive health benefits [outcome]?

Search strategy and outcome

The search was performed in May 2007.

Secondary sources

Cochrane Database and Clinical Evidence yielded no results.

Primary sources

A search of Medline 1965 to date using “dolphin” AND “cerebral palsy” yielded 0 results, “dolphin” AND “therapy” 132 results of which 0 were relevant, “dolphin” AND “swimming” 88 results of which 0 were relevant, and “dolphin limit child” 20 results of which 0 were relevant.

A Google search using “dolphin and cerebral palsy” resulted in 62 400 hits (14 May 2007) and a search of Google Scholar using “dolphin swimming …