HUMOR IN MEDICINE
Section snippets
THE ROLE OF HUMOR IN HEALTH CARE
Health care humor potentially fulfills the following functions4, 9:
Narrows cultural and socioeconomic interpersonal gaps
Relieves anxiety
Communicates messages
Provides and acceptable outlet for anger and frustration
Enhances healing
Communicates caring
Nontherapeutic uses of humor, humor in the presence but exclusive of the patient, can do the reverse: widen interpersonal gaps, increase anxiety, prevent communication, promote anger, impede healing, and express a lack of concern. Fortunately,
DOES THE HUMOR REALLY MATTER?
The importance of using humor in health care has been well documented in a variety of settings. Nursing units that routinely use humor have higher staff and patient satisfaction. Many studies have been done of the physiologic effects of laughter; a positive impact on circulatory7 and respiratory status,8 relaxation,3 and immune function,2, 6, 9 has been detected. Hospitalized patients who are less passive and who take more control have improved outcomes; as mentioned previously, humor is one
Anxiety Threshold
One of the challenges facing health care providers is knowing when initiating humor is not appropriate. In fact, there do not appear to be any specific topics or aspects of care that preclude humor. Humor has been used to help patients cope with all aspects of wellness and illness. No subjects are absolutely taboo.
A proper and private woman was being treated for cervical cancer including intravaginal radiation therapy. This required many pelvic examinations by different professionals. As her
Humor With Children
When people meet a funny doctor they often ask if he or she cares for children. In fact, humor with kids can be helpful but should look quite different than humor with adults.5 The verbal content is replaced by playfulness, magic, slapstick, body humor, music, and facial expressions. As with adults, humor helps to relieve anxiety but these are generally the immediate anxieties associated with the office visit.
An almost infinite number of variations to physician-child humor are practiced. The
LEARNING TO USE HUMOR
Some people can tell a joke and some cannot. Some providers generate humor readily and spontaneously and others rarely elicit a smile let alone a guffaw. No matter how important humor may be to primary care, is it possible to change one's style to take advantage of humor's therapeutic power. Studies confirm significant variation in individuals' tendency to generate or appreciate humor.10, 22, 23 Given that it is critical to be natural and comfortable, is humor right for all physicians?
The
SUMMARY
A 56-year-old woman with chronic somatization was perpetually fearful that she had a terminal illness. One thing she had going for her was a 15-year relationship with a doctor who shared the lighter side of life with her. Her doctor once said, ``Someday I'm going to find something wrong with you, and we won't know what to do. We'll be so surprised!'' The patient was commenting that despite that fact that she felt terrible, her friends told here she looked good. She then added, ``I'm just glad
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Cited by (25)
Impairments of humour comprehension in multiple sclerosis
2020, Multiple Sclerosis and Related DisordersCitation Excerpt :Thus, the inability to perceive this second degree of language is likely to generate a major social handicap. Humour has also been reported to form part of physician-patient encounters (Wender, 1996; Berger et al., 2004): its impairment is thus likely to disrupt medical follow-up of MS patients. According to incongruity theory, humour comprehension is a high-level cognitive process that comprises two steps (Fig. 1): incongruity detection and incongruity resolution (Vrticka et al., 2013; Wu et al., 2013).
Humor
2014, Psychiatric Clinics of North AmericaCitation Excerpt :The approach to humor in medicine seems to be changing. Even in primary care, humor is being given more importance.16,17 Hospitals are now using clowns to help with humor.18
Racial differences in coping with the need for kidney transplantation and willingness to ask for live organ donation
2006, American Journal of Kidney DiseasesTherapeutic value of humor
2002, Medicina ClinicaUpdating the cognitive model of humour perception: a potential implicit processing pathway?
2023, Cognition and EmotionThe Use of Humor in Palliative Care: A Systematic Literature Review
2018, American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine
Address reprint requests to Richard C. Wender, MD, Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Medical College, Thomas efferson University, 1015 Walnut Street, Suite 401, Philadelphia, PA 19107
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From the Department of Family Medicine, Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania