Social Laughter's Effect on Pain Tolerance Study

           Chronic pain is a debilitating problem that millions of Americans struggle with. Chronic pain is pain that lasts longer than 6 months, it can be mild or excruciating. When someone has chronic pain, pain signals remain active in the nervous system for months to years. This takes both a physical and mental toll on a person. There is no cure for chronic pain. Health care providers work extremely hard to manage each individuals' pain with customized approaches however, treatment is not always effective. Chronic pain has a very negative impact on quality of life of an individual and it makes simple activities of daily living seem insurmountable.  Novel ways to effectively treat chronic pain are needed now more than ever as the population of older adults who often suffer from osteoarthritis and low back pain rises                 

         "Laughter is the best medicine" wasn't a term coined without reason. Laughter is known to provide stress relief, boost immunity, increase resilience, decrease depression and also relieve pain. Laughter therapy is one of the most discussed and often controversial strategies for the management of pain. Evidence from research has been ambiguous with how laughter effects pain. Laughter is an ideal treatment strategy as it is cost effective, not time consuming and easily applied to patients. Through our research we believe we can find a way to help people struggling with chronic pain.

          More research needs to be done with laughter's effect on pain tolerance but we, as the investigators need your help. Recruiting subjects for this type of research is not easy. A study with our type of intervention and design does not make it a highly appeasing study for participants, so we currently are hoping for funds to help pay participants. This research study is important to not only us but millions of people as well.  Join us in making a difference and together we can start helping people live a happier life.