BACKGROUND: To investigate whether laughter therapy lowers total mood disturbance scores and improves self-esteem scores in patients with cancer. DESIGN/ SETTING: Randomized controlled trial in a radio-oncology outpatient setting. PATIENTS: Sixty-two patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to the experimental group (n=33) or the wait list control group (n=29). INTERVENTIONS: Three laughter therapy sessions lasting 60 minutes each. OUTCOME MEASURES: Mood state and self-esteem. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat analysis revealed a significant main effect of group: Experimental group participants reported a 14.12-point reduction in total mood disturbance, while the wait list control group showed a 1.21-point reduction (p=0.001). The per-protocol analysis showed a significant main effect of group: The experimental group reported a 18.86-point decrease in total mood disturbance, while controls showed a 0.19-point reduction (p<0.001). The self-esteem of experimental group was significantly greater than that of the wait list control group (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that laughter therapy can improve mood state and self-esteem and can be a beneficial, noninvasive intervention for patients with cancer in clinical settings.
RCT Entities:
BACKGROUND: To investigate whether laughter therapy lowers total mood disturbance scores and improves self-esteem scores in patients with cancer. DESIGN/ SETTING: Randomized controlled trial in a radio-oncology outpatient setting. PATIENTS: Sixty-two patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to the experimental group (n=33) or the wait list control group (n=29). INTERVENTIONS: Three laughter therapy sessions lasting 60 minutes each. OUTCOME MEASURES: Mood state and self-esteem. RESULTS: The intention-to-treat analysis revealed a significant main effect of group: Experimental group participants reported a 14.12-point reduction in total mood disturbance, while the wait list control group showed a 1.21-point reduction (p=0.001). The per-protocol analysis showed a significant main effect of group: The experimental group reported a 18.86-point decrease in total mood disturbance, while controls showed a 0.19-point reduction (p<0.001). The self-esteem of experimental group was significantly greater than that of the wait list control group (p=0.044). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that laughter therapy can improve mood state and self-esteem and can be a beneficial, noninvasive intervention for patients with cancer in clinical settings.
Authors: Kaitlyn Lapen; Elaine Cha; Christina C Huang; David M Rosenberg; Michael K Rooney; Mark McArthur; Ritu Arya; Christina H Son; Anne R McCall; Daniel W Golden Journal: Support Care Cancer Date: 2021-04-06 Impact factor: 3.603