Science / Medicine : ‘Humor Therapy’ Fails to Live Up to Its Billing in Tests
If you laugh, the whole world may laugh with you--but it probably won’t do much for your health, a study released recently suggests.
Patients who laughed at an old Jack Benny routine felt no better than those who listened to soothing ocean sounds during their operations, researchers reported.
“Some anecdotal reports and laboratory studies with healthy populations suggest humor may be of therapeutic benefit to hospitalized patients,” wrote Joseph Neumann, a psychologist at the Quillen-Dishner College of Medicine in Johnson City, Tenn. “The present report suggests the helpful effects of humor in hospitalized patients may be less than previously indicated.”
The study, published as a letter in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., involved eight men who underwent prostate surgery and 16 men who underwent a procedure to test arteries in their legs.
Half the patients listened to a one-hour tape of “an old Jack Benny radio show,” while the other half listened to a one-hour tape of ocean sounds while undergoing their procedures.
Eighty-five per cent of those who listened to the Jack Benny tape “described the tape as humorous,” Neumann said.
Neumann compared the two groups of patients using a variety of variables, including heart rates and anxiety and pain levels before, during and after the surgery. He found “no statistically significant group differences.”
“Caution is urged in advocating extensive resources for ‘humor therapy.’ While the therapy probably does not hurt, this as well as other controlled studies cast doubt on the efficacy of humor or music tape approaches,” he said.
“Further controlled research is needed to find out if humor therapy works and, if it does, with what patients and under what conditions,” he added.
The letter was titled, “Humor Therapy: The Good News--No One Died; The Bad News--Jack Benny Did.”
In an accompanying letter, Beth and Philip Henneman of the UCLA Medical Center described a study aimed at demonstrating that “a smile is contagious.”
Of 300 hospital workers in the study, 87% of those who the researchers smiled at, smiled back, the Hennemans said. Only 8% of those who received eye contact without smiles smiled back, they said.
“Interestingly, 60% of the subjects in the experimental group (those who were smiled at) offered a ‘hi’ or other salutation in addition to smiling,” they said.
“This research supports the theory that a smile begets a smile. Implementation of this technique has the potential to increase socialization and decrease stress in large, impersonal medical centers,” they said.
“It is highly recommended that this study be replicated at other institutions, not only with staff, but with patients and families as well,” they said.
