IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i21p4194-d281555.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effectiveness of Integrative Laughter Therapy to Reduce Anxiety, Improve Self-Esteem and Increase Happiness: A Naturalistic Study at a Day Hospital for Addictive Disorders

Author

Listed:
  • Seyla De Francisco

    (Escola Universitària d’Infermeria de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (EUI Sant Pau), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
    Unitat de Conductes Addictives, Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Cristina Torres

    (Unitat de Conductes Addictives, Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Sandra De Andrés

    (Unitat de Conductes Addictives, Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08025 Barcelona, Spain
    Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Ana Millet

    (Unitat de Conductes Addictives, Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • M. Teresa Ricart

    (Escola Universitària d’Infermeria de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (EUI Sant Pau), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
    Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Elvira Hernández-Martínez-Esparza

    (Escola Universitària d’Infermeria de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (EUI Sant Pau), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Mercedes Abades

    (Escola Universitària d’Infermeria de l’Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau (EUI Sant Pau), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), 08025 Barcelona, Spain)

  • Joan Trujols

    (Unitat de Conductes Addictives, Servei de Psiquiatria, Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, 08025 Barcelona, Spain
    Institut d’Investigació Biomèdica Sant Pau (IIB Sant Pau), 08025 Barcelona, Spain
    Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Salud Mental (CIBERSAM), 28029 Madrid, Spain)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Seyla De Francisco & Cristina Torres & Sandra De Andrés & Ana Millet & M. Teresa Ricart & Elvira Hernández-Martínez-Esparza & Mercedes Abades & Joan Trujols, 2019. "Effectiveness of Integrative Laughter Therapy to Reduce Anxiety, Improve Self-Esteem and Increase Happiness: A Naturalistic Study at a Day Hospital for Addictive Disorders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-10, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4194-:d:281555
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4194/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4194/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. van der Wal, C. Natalie & Kok, Robin N., 2019. "Laughter-inducing therapies: Systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 232(C), pages 473-488.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Albert Feliu-Soler & Javier de Diego-Adeliño & Juan V. Luciano & Ioseba Iraurgi & Carlo Alemany & Dolors Puigdemont & Víctor Pérez & Maria J. Portella & Joan Trujols, 2021. "Unhappy While Depressed: Examining the Dimensionality, Reliability and Validity of the Subjective Happiness Scale in a Spanish Sample of Patients with Depressive Disorders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(20), pages 1-13, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kwang-Sim Jang & Jeong-Eun Oh & Gyeong-Suk Jeon, 2022. "Effects of Simulated Laughter Therapy Using a Breathing Exercise: A Study on Hospitalized Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-13, August.
    2. Jose M. León-Pérez & Francisco J. Cantero-Sánchez & Ángela Fernández-Canseco & José M. León-Rubio, 2021. "Effectiveness of a Humor-Based Training for Reducing Employees’ Distress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-13, October.
    3. Ryuichi Ohta & Megumi Nishida & Nobuyasu Okuda & Chiaki Sano, 2021. "The Smiles of Older People through Recreational Activities: Relationship between Smiles and Joy," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-8, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4194-:d:281555. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.