Effects of Mirthful Laughter on Pain Tolerance: A Randomized Controlled Investigation

Abstract Introduction Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects many people. Currently, there is no single treatment known to cure or assure relief from chronic pain. Accordingly, the management of patients’ discomfort is an integral part of treating chronic pain. Such treatment, however, is not effective for many patients. We investigated whether mirthful laughter provided by comic relief can influence pain tolerance and muscle soreness in young healthy participants. Methods Forty participants underwent a randomized controlled cross-over designed experiment. Each participant was exposed to a comedy video eliciting mirthful laughter and an uninteresting documentary. Delayed onset muscle soreness was induced in one leg at a time by eccentric exercise. Pain tolerance was tested using the blunt force application and assessed subjectively using the visual analog scale. Results Watching the comedy video elicited a significantly greater irregular breathing pattern compared with watching the documentary video (p Conclusions Thirty minutes of watching a comedy eliciting laughter favorably influenced pain tolerance in healthy humans. Clinical Trail #NCT02896075