Mirthful Laughter and Muscle Soreness / Pain

April 5, 2021 updated by: University of Texas at Austin

Social Laughter's Effect on Pain Tolerance

The purpose of this study is first to investigate the effect of a controlled intervention with a comedy video on pain tolerance in a social setting while quantitatively measuring laughter in a young healthy population experiencing delayed onset muscle soreness. The comedy intervention will be compared to a control of watching a documentary. The second aim is to examine to what extent various methods of eliciting pain would cause physiological responses that confound the interpretation of a pain stimulus.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Chronic pain affects 116 million people, that is more than the total affected by cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. Chronic pain has at least as large of a negative impact on quality of life as any other chronic disorder, and in the United States alone, the cost of chronic pain exceeds $635 billion per year. Interventions that effectively manage chronic pain are becoming increasingly important as the elderly population, who often suffer from osteoarthritis and low back pain, rises. Pain sensitivity and tolerance are impacted by a variety of affective factors. The laughter therapy is one of the most discussed and often controversial strategies for the management of pain. There are some preliminary uncontrolled studies reporting that pain tolerance is increased acutely with humor and laughter. Accordingly, the primary aim of the present study is to investigate the effect of a highly controlled intervention with a comedy video on pain tolerance and compare it to a control of watching a documentary video. Quantitatively measuring laughter with a chest stress-strain gauge during the interventions will allow the investigators to look for a possible dose response relationship. The investigators will use the pain and soreness felt from delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) in healthy subjects to simulate the condition of individuals suffering from chronic pain. This study will serve as a precursor to eventual studies specifically on individuals with chronic pain. If it can be proven that pain tolerance is increased in a healthy population than it is possible the intervention will have a greater affect in the chronic pain population.

Using healthy subjects with delayed onset muscle soreness allows the investigators to easily recruit and control for other diseases or disorders that may accompany a chronic pain individual.

There have been a number of different techniques used to assess pain tolerance. The modes of stimulating pain used in previous studies of laughter and humor on pain tolerance remain controversial. These studies utilized the cold pressor test and the inflation of a blood pressure cuff to elicit pain. Both of these methods are known to elicit marked cardiovascular responses along with the pain responses. An important part of the pain regulatory process in humans is that there is a functional interaction between the cardiovascular and pain regulatory systems. The brain regions underlying control of the cardiovascular system are known to overlap substantially with those that contribute to anti-nociception. Accordingly, it is difficult to determine how much of the pain tolerance is affected by cardiovascular reflexes. Thus, the secondary aim of the present study is to test how much cardiovascular responses will be elicited by a variety of methods of eliciting pain (pumping up a blood pressure cuff, the cold pressor test, and the application of blunt force on muscles).

The application of blunt force will be used to elicit pain without causing a systemic response involving cardiovascular reflexes which is seen in the cold pressor and inflation of a blood pressure cuff. The investigators believe these vast cardiovascular responses may cause pain tolerance to not be truly measured. It has been inferred that blunt force applied within a few seconds to a local, specific spot on the quadriceps will not stimulate a systemic and cardiovascular response and thus the pain tolerance measurement will be more accurate if independent of cardiovascular responses. Pressure and force application is widely used as an experimental pain stimulus, but it has not been utilized in the context of laughter and pain.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

40

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Texas
      • Austin, Texas, United States, 78712
        • Cardiovascular Aging Research Lab at UT Austin

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

20 years to 40 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Between the age of 20 and 40
  • Considered healthy

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Candidates that are on cardiovascular acting drugs.
  • Candidates currently taking anticoagulants.
  • Candidates that have chronic pain or other musculoskeletal injuries.
  • Candidates with a body fat percentage less than 5%.
  • Candidates with bleeding disorders or neurological disorders
  • Raynaud's disease
  • History of severe frost bite.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Basic Science
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Randomized cross-over approach

The main study was conducted using a randomized controlled cross-over approach. Participants made three visits each for the two video watching interventions. The interventions were separated by a minimum of

1week as a washout. Each intervention included one day of inducing muscle soreness in one leg through eccentric muscle contractions; a second day of testing muscle soreness and pain tolerance and watching a 30-min video (either a comedy or documentary); and a third day of testing muscle soreness and pain tolerance again to see if the effects of the video viewing persisted the next day (i.e., 24 h after the video viewing).
Other: 30 Minute Comedy Video
The intervention is a 30 minute video of a comedy
Other: 30 Minute Documentary Video
The intervention is a 30 minute video of an uninteresting documentary

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Peak Force of Pain Tolerance Measurement
Time Frame: This was measured at 24 hours after watching either a comedy or documentary film.
The peak force is measured by using a force transducer and applying it to participants' quadriceps. Using data acquisition software the investigators can find the peak force applied.
This was measured at 24 hours after watching either a comedy or documentary film.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Heart Rate
Time Frame: This was measured at 24 hours after watching either a comedy or documentary video.
The heart rate was using a finger photoplethysmograph.
This was measured at 24 hours after watching either a comedy or documentary video.
Blood Pressure
Time Frame: This was measured at 24 hours after watching a comedy or documentary video.
Blood pressure on the brachial artery measured via oscillometric methods
This was measured at 24 hours after watching a comedy or documentary video.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Texas at Austin

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

August 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 31, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 9, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

September 12, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 8, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 5, 2021

Last Verified

April 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 2016-05-0092

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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