Is Laughter the Best Medicine? Research Into the Therapeutic Use of Humour and Laughter in Nursing Practice

Introduction Humour is an interesting subject that people have been trying to discover more about for millenia. The use of humour dates back at least to biblical times, as shown in Proverbs 17:22: 'A merry heart does good like a medicine, but a broken spirit dries the bones.' The problem with humour is that it is hard to define and therefore to explain what it really means. It can mean different things to many different people. Humour is a common aspect of human communication (Penson et al., 2005). Minden (2002) said that 'humour can be understood as a sequence involving a stimulus--humour, an emotional response--mirth or amusement, and a resulting behaviour--usually smiling, grinning, giggling or laughter'. It can be said that humour is a process involving steps that come together at the same time to elicit a response. Humour can be understood as the occurrence in which a person smiles, laughs and otherwise displays amusement in a variety of situations (Solomon, 1996). In relation to healthcare, Solomon (1996), also describes humour as a free commodity that has no side-effects.