Laughing away the pain: A narrative review of humour, sense of humour and pain

Pérez‐Aranda, Adrián; Hofmann, Jennifer; Feliu‐Soler, Albert; Ramírez‐Maestre, Carmen; Andrés‐Rodríguez, Laura; Ruch, Willibald; Luciano, Juan V.

doi:10.1002/ejp.1309

Cited by 38 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 92 publications

(124 reference statements)

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“…Laughing and humourous experience have relatively direct beneficial impacts on emotion. In physiological terms, a positive attitude and forced laughter can help stimulate the production of neurotransmitters (Berk, Felten, Tan, Bittman, & Westengard, 2001;Vlachopoulos et al, 2009), reduce muscle tension (Fry, 1992) and pain (Perez-Aranda et al, 2018). On the other hand, laughing and humourous experience also has some psychological changes such as creating positive mood, optimistic thought, and reducing rumination (Gelkopf, Gonen, Kurs, Melamed, & Bleich, 2006 Gelkopf 1993 Ghodsbin 2015 Hirosaki 2013 Kim 2015 Ko 2011 Low 2013 Memarian 2017 Shahidi 2011…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials of laughter and humour interventions on depression, anxiety and sleep quality in adults

Zhao¹,

Yin²,

Zhang

et al. 2019

Journal of Advanced Nursing

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Aim To quantify the effect of laughter and humour interventions on depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in adults. Design A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. Data Sources PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Web of Science, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure, Weipu, and Wanfang Data were searched from their inception up to December 2018. Review methods The reporting of this meta‐analytical review was conducted according to the guidelines of the Cochrane Collaboration. Two reviewers selected the studies, extracted the data, and evaluated the risk of bias (Cochrane Collaboration bias assessment tool) of the included papers independently. Results Ten studies comprising 814 participants were included. Meta‐analysis showed that these interventions significantly decreased adults' depression, anxiety, and improved their sleep quality. The results of subgroup analysis showed that depression benefits more from long‐term laughter intervention. Conclusions This meta‐analysis revealed that laughter and humour interventions are effective in relieving depression, anxiety, and improve sleep quality in adults. More studies with high quality and follow‐up assessment should be conducted for future research. Impact This review synthesized current evidence using laughter and humour interventions to reduce negative emotion and promote better results in adults, especially with respect to target the applicability between different populations or intervention methods. In addition, humour and laughter interventions are safe, convenient, interesting and can promote interpersonal relationship in both patients and medical workers, which have great feasibility and potential to be used as an aspect of psychotherapy for clinical and nursing to improve well‐beings in adults.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials of laughter and humour interventions on depression, anxiety and sleep quality in adults

Zhao¹,

Yin²,

Zhang

et al. 2019

Journal of Advanced Nursing

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“…One longitudinal study found that the use of humour as a coping strategy was related to less pain and distress (Merz et al., 2009). However, very few studies have investigated the relationship between humour styles and adaptation in chronic pain samples (Pérez‐Aranda et al, 2019). Sánchez Espinar et al (2016) found that self‐enhancing humour style and humour‐based coping strategies were associated with more life satisfaction and positive affect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond pain intensity and catastrophizing: The association between self‐enhancing humour style and the adaptation of individuals with chronic pain

Ramírez‐Maestre

Esteve

López‐Martínez

et al. 2020

European Journal of Pain

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Background: Many questions regarding the process by which self-enhancing humour style has an effect on chronic pain individuals' adjustment remain unanswered. The aim of the present study was to analyse the association of self-enhancing humour style with adjustment in a sample of individuals with chronic pain, over and above the role of catastrophizing and pain intensity. Adjustment was assessed using measures of depression, pain interference and flourishing. We also examined the indirect association between self-enhancing humour style and adjustment via pain acceptance. Methods: The study included 427 patients with heterogeneous chronic pain conditions. The study hypotheses were tested using three multiple linear regression analyses, one for each of the criterion variables. Results: Consistent with the study hypothesis, both direct and indirect associations were found between self-enhancing humour style and depressive symptoms, pain interference and flourishing via pain acceptance. Conclusions: Self-enhancing humour style could potentially help individuals with chronic pain to gain perspective and distance themselves from the situation through the acceptance of pain-related negative emotions. Significance: Very few studies have investigated the relationship between humour styles and adjustment in chronic pain samples. The results of the current study support the idea that adaptive dispositional traits, such as patient's self-enhancing humour style, play a role in the adaptation of individuals with chronic pain. Given that the association between self-enhancing humour style and adjustment evidenced an indirect association through pain acceptance, training in the use of humour, as individuals with self-enhancing humour style do, might be a useful addition to ACT treatment. 1358 | RAMÍREZ-MAESTRE ET Al. 1 | INTRODUCTION Chronic pain interferes in the main areas of life (Breivik, Collett, Ventafridda, Cohen, & Gallacher, 2006) and has a negative impact on people's well-being. The negative effects of pain are known to be influenced by a number of psychological factors, such as an individual's tendency to catastrophize about their pain (Craner, Sperry, Koball, Morrison, & Gilliam, 2017). Pain catastrophizing has been defined as exaggerated maladaptive cognitions in response to ongoing, anticipated or recalled pain (Kapoor, Thorn, Bandy, & Clements, 2015). The detrimental role of catastrophizing in managing and coping with pain is well documented, and catastrophizing is widely acknowledged as an important predictor of pain experience (

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“…A recent prospective study showed that the stress-buffering function of positive affect is more pronounced in individuals who experience high levels of stress [17]. Along these lines, a recent review of investigations into humor and pain reported a humor-triggered increased pain tolerance for experimental pain and a keen sense of humor as a coping mechanism for chronic pain conditions [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does laughing have a stress-buffering effect in daily life? An intensive longitudinal study

et al. 2020

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Positive affect is associated with alleviating mental and physiological stress responses. As laughter is a common physiological operationalization of positive affect, we investigated whether the effects of experiencing a stressful event on stress symptoms is lessened by frequency and intensity of daily laughter. Using an intensive longitudinal design, we ambulatory assessed the self-reported experience of stressful events, stress symptoms and the frequency as well as the intensity of laughter in university students' daily lives. Our hierarchical ecological momentary assessment data were analyzed with multilevel models. The results support the stress-buffering model of positive affect: We found that the frequency of laughter attenuated the association between stressful events and subsequent stress symptoms. The level of intensity of laughter, however, was found to have no significant effect. Future studies should use additional psychophysiological indicators of stress and straighten out the differential contributions of frequency and intensity of daily laughter.

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Laughing away the pain: A narrative review of humour, sense of humour and pain

Abstract: This review summarizes all main findings regarding humour, sense of humour and pain up until the first half of 2018 and offers a list of aspects to be considered in further studies regarding the link of humour and pain to contribute to a more systematic research.

Cited by 38 publications

References 92 publications

A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials of laughter and humour interventions on depression, anxiety and sleep quality in adults

A meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials of laughter and humour interventions on depression, anxiety and sleep quality in adults

Beyond pain intensity and catastrophizing: The association between self‐enhancing humour style and the adaptation of individuals with chronic pain

Does laughing have a stress-buffering effect in daily life? An intensive longitudinal study

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