Dry Eye? Laughter Works Like Eye Drops: Study

Laugh and it will pass. Popular wisdom, but also scientific truth. “The Laughter therapy may be as effective as eye drops in the initial treatment of dry eye disease symptoms“: eye discomfort, redness, irritation and itching, disorders that affect an estimated 360 million people worldwide. This is suggested by one Chinese study published in ‘Bmj’ from the team of Lingyi Liang of the State Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology – Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangdong.

Chinese Study on the Effects of Laughter Therapy on the Eye

Evidence – the scientists recall – indicates that laughter therapy alleviates depression, anxiety, stress and chronic pain, while strengthening the immune system, and is recognized as a complementary and additional treatment capable of offering benefits against several chronic conditions including mental health problems, cancer and diabetes. The authors decided to test laughter therapy also in patients with dry eye. The research involved 283 people aged 18 to 45, 74% women, assessed for dry eye disease by measuring the Ocular Surface Disease Index (OSDI) and randomly divided into 2 groups.: the first had to vocalize phrases that induce smiles by repeating them 30 times in 5-minute sessions, following a video and with the support of an App that helped perfect the exercise; the second had to apply 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid eye drops 4 times a day for 8 weeks. Patients with pre-existing eye diseases, lesions, infections or allergies, and those who had recently used contact lenses or any treatment for dry eye were excluded. After 8 weeks, both therapies were interrupted, both the laughter and the pharmacological ones.

The results: laughter like hyaluronic acid

Result: The mean OSDI score at 8 weeks was reduced by 10.5 points in the laughter therapy group and by 8.83 points in the eye drop group. A mean difference of 1.45 points, indicating that laughter therapy was “not less effective than eye drops,” the authors report. Laughter therapy also produced “significant improvements” in other ocular parameters and mental health scores. No adverse events were observed in either study group. Despite some limitations that may have affected the outcome, the researchers say the data suggest that “laughter training was not inferior to 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid in improving the symptoms and clinical signs of dry eye disease. As a safe, environmentally friendly, and low-cost intervention, laughter therapy could serve as a first-line home treatment for people with symptomatic dry eye disease and limited corneal staining.”