Effects of laughter therapy on depression, cognition and sleep among the community-dwelling elderly

To investigate the effects of laughter therapy on depression, cognitive function, quality of life, and sleep of the elderly in a community.

Between July and September 2007, the total study sample consisted of 109 subjects aged over 65 divided into two groups; 48 subjects in the laughter therapy group and 61 subjects in the control group. The subjects in the laughter therapy group underwent laughter therapy four times over 1 month. We compared Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Short-Form Health Survey-36 (SF-36), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) between the two groups before and after laughter therapy.

There were no significant differences in baseline characteristics between the two groups. Before laughter therapy, the GDS scores were 7.98 ± 3.58 and 8.08 ± 3.96; the MMSE scores were 23.81 ± 3.90 and 22.74 ± 4.00; total scores of SF-36 were 54.77 ± 17.63 and 52.54 ± 21.31; the ISI scores were 8.00 ± 6.29 and 8.36 ± 6.38; the PSQI scores were 6.98 ± 3.41 and 7.38 ± 3.70 in laughter therapy group and control groups, respectively. After laughter therapy, the GDS scores were 6.94 ± 3.19 (P=0.027) and 8.43 ± 3.44 (P=0.422); the MMSE scores were 24.63 ± 3.53 (P=0.168) and 23.70 ± 3.85 (P=0.068); total scores of SF-36 were 52.24 ± 17.63 (P=0.347) and 50.32 ± 19.66 (P=0.392); the ISI scores were 7.58 ± 5.38 (P=0.327) and 9.31 ± 6.35 (P=0.019); the PSQI scores were 6.04 ± 2.35 (P=0.019) and 7.30 ± 3.74 (P=0.847) in both groups, respectively.

Laughter therapy is considered to be useful, cost-effective and easily-accessible intervention that has positive effects on depression, insomnia, and sleep quality in the elderly.