The effectiveness of laugh therapy on anxiety and hopelessness children whit cancer.

Cancer is one of the rare and chronic diseases in children. It is always accompanied by psychological problems. Anxiety and hopelessness are the most common mood disorders in cancer patients. Therefore, the aim of the current research was to determine the efficacy of laughter therapy on anxiety and hopelessness in children with cancer in Ardabil.

  This study was semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test with the control group. The statistical population consisted of all children with cancer referred to Boali Hospital Training center year of 1397-1398 in Ardebil.30 children were chosen through available sampling, and randomly divided into two experimental and control groups (16 subjects each). The experimental group received 8 sessions of laughter therapy with Comic Clip Broadcast for 45 minutes. The research Tools were: 1) The Kazdin Hopelessness Scale for children (1979).  2) The Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (1997).  Statistical analyses were conducted by Covariance analysis and SPSS software version 24.

The results of covariance analysis indicated that laughter therapy significantly reduced anxiety and hopelessness scores in the post-test. (P <0.01).

According to the finding of the study, it can be said that the use of laughter therapy is effective in reducing anxiety and hopelessness, so this treatment can be used as a complementary treatment along with the main cancer treatments.