The Effects of Laughter Therapy on the Anxiety and Depression of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

웃음치료가 염증성 장질환 환자의 불안 및 우울에 미치는 효과

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to apply laughter therapy to clinical practice and investigate its effects on patients' anxiety and depression in order to increase the quality of nursing for patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Methods: The study was conducted based on the non-equivalent control group pretestposttest design. The participants include 20 patients with IBD in the control group and 17 in the experiment group. Data was collected from July 10th, 2011 to January 22nd, 2012. Laughter therapy was administered once a day for five consecutive days. Results: The anxiety score was significantly different between the two groups and indicates that laughter therapy is effective for reducing anxiety among patients with IBD. Futhermore, there were differences in the depression scores of the experiment group between the pre-test and post-test, but no significant differences were found between the two groups. Conclusion: The results show that laughter therapy was effective in reducing anxiety among patients with IBD but did not decrease depression directly. Considering that the experiment group had a bigger reduction rate in depression scores than the control group. However, it is expected that laughter therapy will serve as an emotional nursing intervention for patients with IBD.