The effect of laughter and humor interventions on chronic non-cancer pain in older adults: A systematic review

Document Type : Review Article

Authors

1 Assistant professor of psychiatry, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 MSc. in geriatric nursing, Mashhad University Medical Science, Mashhad, Iran.

10.22038/JFMH.2025.83794.3182

Abstract

Introduction: In recent decades, special attention has been paid to laughter therapies in medicine and psychology. A systematic review has not yet been performed on these therapies for pain in elderly people. This research aims to estimate the effect of Laughter and humor interventions on Chronic Non-Cancer Pain (CNCP) in older adults.
 
Materials and Methods: This study was a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials on the effects of laughter therapy on the severity of chronic pain in elderly non-cancer patients. We searched English and non-English articles published between 2010 and December 2023, using the MeSH search method and the keywords laughter, humor, chronic pain, and older adults in the international and Persian databases, including SID, IranMedex, Magiran, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, EBSCO, and EMBASE databases.
 
Results: Among 1075 articles in the initial search, seven that met the inclusion criteria were selected after removing duplicate and unrelated articles. Among the articles, three articles presented a positive and significant effect in reducing the pain intensity of the elderly, and three articles had a non-significant positive effect, which showed the moderate to low effect of laughter therapy in reducing the pain intensity. Only one article showed a non-significant negative effect. Overall, this review has a large heterogeneity between studies, which may indicate hidden variables or methodological differences.
 
Conclusion: Given the increasing aging population and the financial burden of healthcare, it is recommended to move towards low-cost interventions that are accessible to the general population and require minimal specialized facilities and training.

Keywords

References

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Fundamentals of Mental Health
Volume 27, Issue 4
July and August 2025
Pages 213-221

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