Humor: preventive therapy for family caregivers

Family caregivers provide the majority of home care for chronically ill family members. Many times, family caregivers become overburdended when the responsibility for caring for a chronically dependent family member is added to other family and occupational responsibilities. Such overburdening is implicated in caregiver burnout. Caregiver respite is one way to decrease role overburdening. Humor is one type of respite that has been underused in primary prevention of caregiver burnout.