Abstract
Little is known about the effectiveness of laughter therapy as an adjunctive treatment for patients with addictive disorders. This study aims to evaluate the benefits of integrative laughter therapy (ILT) on levels of self-esteem, anxiety, and happiness in patients treated for addiction at a day hospital (DH). A prospective, naturalistic study with a pre-post design was conducted. All 185 participants received the standard, multicomponent treatment at the DH (treatment as usual; TAU). The participants were also invited to attend weekly ILT sessions. Upon completion of the 2-month DH treatment program, patients were classified according to their attendance at the ILT sessions: patients who attended ≥80% constituted the experimental group (TAU + ILT group) while those who attended <80% were considered controls. Although both groups achieved statistically significant increases in self-esteem and happiness with a decrease in trait anxiety, the improvement on these variables was significantly greater in the TAU + ILT group. Subject to the limitations inherent to quasi-experimental research, the findings of the present study suggest that the addition of an ILT module to the standard treatment in a DH for addictive disorders may yield greater improvement in self-esteem, anxiety, and happiness compared to TAU.
Highlights
IntroductionSeveral recently published systematic reviews have demonstrated the beneficial—or, at least, promising—impact of laughter and humour interventions for a wide range of conditions and populations, including well-being in older adults [1], depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in adults [2], pain in children and adults [3] and mental and physical health in various populations with different conditions [4]
Several recently published systematic reviews have demonstrated the beneficial—or, at least, promising—impact of laughter and humour interventions for a wide range of conditions and populations, including well-being in older adults [1], depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in adults [2], pain in children and adults [3] and mental and physical health in various populations with different conditions [4].few studies have evaluated the potential benefits of laughter therapy as an adjunct to the standard treatment of patients with addictive disorders
The main objective of the present study is to evaluate the benefits of integrative laughter therapy (ILT) on the mental health of patients with addictive disorders
Summary
Several recently published systematic reviews have demonstrated the beneficial—or, at least, promising—impact of laughter and humour interventions for a wide range of conditions and populations, including well-being in older adults [1], depression, anxiety, and sleep quality in adults [2], pain in children and adults [3] and mental and physical health in various populations with different conditions [4]. Few studies have evaluated the potential benefits of laughter therapy as an adjunct to the standard treatment of patients with addictive disorders. Despite Canha’s [5] call for the need. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 4194; doi:10.3390/ijerph16214194 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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