Humor in the treatment of chronic mental illness
When looking for studies on humor and neuroscience I came a cross a very nice review. In this review two studies on the use of humor patients with chronic mental illness were discussed. These two studies were done on hospitalized psychiatric patients. If you are looking for a more conventional method of treatment then visit this urgent care clinic for medical assistance.
In one study clowns lead sessions twice weekly with games, psychomotor expression exercises and activities based on imaginary situations. This study was done on an acute psychiatric ward. They did 28 sessions and compared to a prior comparable period of time, disruptive behavior decreased in both absolute and relative terms. The most significantly reduced behaviors were attempted elopements, self-injury and fighting.
The other study was done on two chronic psychiatric wards with patients with chronic schizophrenia. On these two wards movies were provided 5 days per week for three months, the study period. On one ward only humorous movies were shown, the other ward viewed a mixture of film types, with only 15% being humorous.
A significant reduction in clinically rated negative symptoms, anxiety, and depression was found only in the group that viewed humorous
movies. In addition, self-reported anger was decreased and social competence was improved. No changes were found in positive symptoms, activities of daily living, treatment insight, or therapeutic alliance.
To my opinion these two studies emphasis the importance of the therapeutic milieu besides the usual psychotherapeutic and pharmacotherapeutic interventions. What do you think?
Taber KH, Redden M, & Hurley RA (2007). Functional anatomy of humor: positive affect and chronic mental illness. The Journal of neuropsychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 19 (4), 358-62 PMID: 18070837
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August 2, 2010 @ 1:58 pm
Have you seen the newest issue of Europe’s Journal of Psychology?
It has the entire issue devoted to humour and its relations to genetics, well being and personality style.
http://www.ejop.org/
August 2, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
Hi Doc,
Anecdotally I can relate to humor having a therapeutic effect.
During my spouse’s worst episodes of MDD encompassing suicidal ideations I would try to redirect her negative thoughts and indulge her attention by getting her to watch comedy either by way of a movie or comedy TV show.
Amazing as it would seem for the hour or so of the presentation I could truly hear her laughter from another room.
Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com
August 2, 2010 @ 7:03 pm
Doc,
By the way, what gives with the duplication of comments on your blog site?
Warmly,
Herb
VNSdepression.com
August 3, 2010 @ 2:20 pm
hi..!!
it so informative..
I like it..
Thank you for sharing it:)
August 4, 2010 @ 9:10 pm
Dr. Shock,
I found you this morning when I did a google blog search using mental illness. I was glad!
I (36) am diagnosed for bipolar and my boyfriend (24)is diagnosed for schizophrenia. We run our home pretty much like an expensive psych unit. Humor is always a welcome part of our highly effective life style! It is included as part of most of our programs here at, “We Will Do It Our F!*#ing Way” Hospital. 🙂 Movies, nature walks, arts and crafts, nap/rest time, therapy sessions with active listening, writing, housework, and the list goes on. The biggest “rules” being: loose, flexible scheduling and, “Laugh, damn it!”
We do not work for a job at this time (due to our illnesses) and therefore we could waste a lot of time. We don’t. We are not lazy people. We could also feel really bad about not working (I struggle with that on a sometimes crippling level), but we use humor to navigate our way through the muck. ‘Government tit’ kinda jokes and that sort of thing.
Psych wards can be more depressing than just gutting through in your own bed at home because they just don’t make us laugh enough. (and lotsa other reasons, of course)
I am going to follow your blog and do some archive reading later. Thank you! Thank you!
~ Shannon Marie
Elsewhere | Mental Notes
August 8, 2010 @ 12:53 pm
[…] On clowns and comedies in the treatment of mental ilness. […]
January 23, 2011 @ 11:19 pm
I’m sure that humor is a viable therapy, as is art, music, etc. But for more serious and metabolically-caused mental illness: My sister crashed five weeks after helping her taper off antipsych meds, while switching her over to natural therapies. I tapered her off way too quickly. I should have done it over a 3 year period, (rather than 3 weeks), as she had been on the meds for 12 years. (If she had never started the meds, and instead been started on natural treatments, I’m sure she would never have needed the meds to begin with). After stabilized on the meds, again, she went to a naturopath, and the natural therapies were then combined with the meds. Along with the new, non-gluten, dairy-free diet, her side-effects from the drugs are gone. She feels better than she ever has before. Hopefully we can taper her off again, but this time over a much longer time frame. For those with metabolic imbalances, these naturopathic methods seem to be the solution. For those who have a mental illness caused by psychological factors, such as a nervous breakdown, psychotherapy, alone, may be all that is needed.