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The effects of laughter therapy on mood state and self-esteem in cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy: a
So Hee Kim1, Jeong Ran Kook, Moonjung Kwon
11 Department of Nursing, Asan Medical Center , Seoul, Korea.
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.
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