Humor

Braniecka, A., Hanć, M., Wołkowicz, I., Chrzczonowicz‐Stępień, A., Mikołajonek, A., & Lipiec, M. (2019). Is it worth turning a trigger into a joke? Humor as an emotion regulation strategy in remitted depression. Brain and behavior, 9(2).

• Humor was found to decrease negative emotions, increase positive emotions, and enhance the distance from adversity; it was more effective than spontaneous emotion regulation and similarly as effective as positive reappraisal.
• Our findings provide preliminary empirical support for the idea that for individuals vulnerable to depression, humor can be an adaptive tool in dealing with negative responses to aversive events, and, thus, it may impair their potential of these events to trigger depressive episodes.

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Gladding, S. T. (1995). Humor in counseling: Using a natural resource. The Journal of Humanistic Education and Development, 34(1), 3-12.

• [H]umor is a natural occurrence in some counseling situations, and it is a resource that should be used.
• Albert Ellis (1977) stated, "Emotional disturbance largely consists of taking life too seriously" (p. 262). That statement is true for counselors as well as clients. Furthermore, when people lack a sense of an appropriate time to laugh, even about serious matters, they often miss an opportunity to make life better for those whom they help and for themselves. 
• One reason that humor is therapeutic in counseling is that humorous responses can reduce tension. Laughter often opens up an environment for change to take place.
• Humor can also promote insight, foster creativity, overcome resistance, help us deal with taboo subjects, etc.
• Humor can also "distract, backfire, and prevent progress in counseling." 

Goldin, E. & Bordan, B. (1999). The use of humor in counseling: The laughing cure. Journal of Counseling & Development, 77, 405-410.

• Many therapists have discussed the legitimate use of humor in therapy: e.g., Freud, Adler, May, Erikson. 
• Clinical depression contains features which are the antithesis of humor: joylessness, gloominess, lack of pleasure. 

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Laughter Therapy

My summary: Laughter therapy seems like a safe complementary therapy. Some studies have shown that laughter therapy can reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress in cancer patients and geriatric populations. However, these studies are not methodologically strong, as they contain non-active control groups. Therefore, it's not clear whether it's laughter that caused the reduced symptoms or if simply getting out of the house, being around others, getting a little exercise, etc., would cause the same results.

Demir, M. (2015). Effects of Laughter Therapy on Anxiety, Stress, Depression and Quality of Life in Cancer Patients. Journal of Cancer Science & Therapy. Nothing impressive in this systematic review.

• Systematic review. Six studies met criteria (RCT, peer-reviewed, English). All outside US.
• Farifteh SH, Mohammadi-Aria AR, Kiamanesh AR, Mofid B (2014) The Impact of Laughter Yoga on the Stress of Cancer Patients before Chemotherapy. Iran J Cancer Prev 7: 179-83. Treatment group 23, self-report; laughter therapy reduced cancer patients stress levels before chemotherapy. 
• Han H, Park A, Kim HS,Moon H, Park Y (2011) The Effects of Laughter Therapy on Stress Responses in Patients with Preoperative Breast Cancer. J Korean Oncol Nurs 11: 93-100. Breast cancer patients; treatment group 31; depression, anxiety, and stress decreased. Active control? Self-report?
• Cho EA, Oh HE (2011) Effects of laughter therapy on depression, quality of life, resilience and immune responses in breast cancer survivors. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing 41: 285–293. Treatment group 16.
• Cho EA, Oh HE (2011) Effects of laughter therapy on depression, quality of life, resilience and immune responses in breast cancer survivors. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing 41: 285–293. Single patient. 
• Kim SH, Kim YH, Kim HJ, Lee SH, Yu SO (2009) The Effect of Laughter Therapy on Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in Patients with Breast Cancer Undergoing Radiotherapy.J Korean Oncol Nurs 9: 155-162. 

Ko, H. J., & Youn, C. H. (2011). Effects of laughter therapy on depression, cognition and sleep among the community‐dwelling elderly. Geriatrics & Gerontology International, 11(3), 267-274. Not impressive.

• RCT. 48 people in laughter group. Control group had no intervention. Self-report measures. Korea.
• Laughter therapy: performed by nurse, 1 hour per week for 4 weeks. (1) Explained laughter therapy. (2) Laughter meditation (??). (3) Laughed through singing and dancing, Kegel's exercises. (4) Trained in positive thinking. 
• "Our study demonstrated that depression, insomnia and sleep quality improved in the laughter therapy group, while they worsened or showed no significant change in the control group."

Kim, S. H., Kim, Y. H., & Kim, H. J. (2015). Laughter and stress relief in cancer patients: A pilot study. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2015.

• Breast cancer survivors. Korea. RCT. 31 people in intervention group. 4 1-hour sessions. Control group received no intervention. 
• Intervention group posttest has lower depression, anxiety, and stress. Reduction occurred after first session. 
• Intervention description: "The program consisted of periods of loud, prolonged laughter together with information about the effects of the TLP. Starting with an brief introduction including the positive effect of the laughter, participants were lead to various type of laughing (e.g. laughing in rhythm with clapping, laughing for a long time, laughing with the whole body, laughing in various ways, and laughing together with dance routines). After the session ended up with calming the mind and emotion sharing." More info found in Supplementary 1.