Humour and laughter therapy

There is much anecdotal 'evidence' from nurses and patients to support humour and laughter as therapy. However, there is little research to support specific humour or laughter interventions as beneficial in the short or long term in the clinical environment. Humour and laughter remain potentially exciting and innovative tools for nursing therapy. They have a number of effects which could prove beneficial for many different nursing and medical diagnoses and appear to have the additional advantage of being adaptable to most situations. More clinical evaluation of humour and laughter therapy is required before its appropriate use can be defined.