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Current study Clinic clowns make you healthy again
More and more hospitals are hiring hospital clowns to make children's stay in the unfamiliar atmosphere more comfortable. By visiting the happy and colorful jokers, the little patients can be distracted by worries, pains and fears and instead be animated to laugh and be happy. But can the clowns also contribute to the recovery of the children? This question will now be answered by a joint study by the University Medical Center Greifswald and the Humboldt University Berlin.
Clowns bring a good mood to the sterile hospital atmosphere
"Laughter makes you healthy" - this proverb is what the so-called "hospital clowns" take to their hearts when they try to bring some color into the dreary everyday hospital routine while working on the children's ward. In order to ease the difficult time for the children and to distract them from pain and sadness, they ensure a happy, carefree mood in the waiting areas and directly in the rooms and bring laughter and joie-de-vivre to the otherwise "sterile" environment.
But does laughter really make you healthy? This question will now be pursued by scientists of Pediatric Surgery of the University of Greifswald and the Institute of Psychology / Social and Organizational Psychology of the Humboldt University of Berlin. On Thursday, the study will start, in which the effectiveness of clown therapy in children should be investigated. For this purpose, special questionnaires were developed for the small patients, carers, doctors and parents, according to the director of the Greifswald Pediatric Surgery, Winfried Barthlen, to the news agency "dpa".
Laughter helps with recovery. Picture: didesign - fotolia Effects of laughter so far little researched
A seemingly long overdue investigation, because as the physician and cabaret artist Eckart von Hirschhausen notes, there is little scientific knowledge about the effects of laughter and humor on health. "I dream that one generation will succeed in translating humor research into a recognized science, with several professorships in Germany, as content in all medical and therapeutic professions, and with parties that are ashamed of being a lawyer , Administrative Director or Tax Advisor ", the physician continues.
Since December 2014, his foundation "Humor hilft hilft" is therefore investigating whether patients with chest pain and psychosomatic cardiac discomfort can benefit from humor training in cooperation with a Brandenburg and a Stuttgart clinic. "In this way, we get reliable data that allow us to conclude whether humor can positively influence the state of health," said senior physician Dr. med. Peter Ong from the Robert Bosch Hospital (RBK), Dr. med. Ong.
According to the Foundation, there are now around 50 to 60 clubs and a total of around 500 hospital clowns in Germany - and the number is rising. The goal is that every clinic and every age facility humor a permanent place in everyday life, according to a spokeswoman for "humor helps cure" against the "dpa".
Concentration of the "happiness hormone" oxytocin should allow conclusions
"Every doctor and every nurse knows from his own point of view the salutary effect of hope, good mood and laughter", Eckart von Hirschhausen explains in an interview with the news agency. However, this can only be proved with difficulty due to the many influencing factors and different courses of events for the individual case. Therefore, it is "all the more commendable" that the Greifswald pediatric surgeons would now work with several methods, the doctor continued.
In addition to the questionnaires, the new study also aims to determine the concentration of the so-called "happiness hormone" oxytocin in children's saliva. In addition, it will be examined whether the clowns have a positive effect on the parents of the small patients and to what extent this, in turn, is transferred to the children. Finally, this combined approach should provide first insights as to whether the work of the clowns actually has an influence on the success of the cure, continues Winfried Barthlen.
A total of 48 small patients at the Greifswald Children's Hospital between the ages of 5 and 12 will be examined in the coming months for the study. Half of them would receive clown therapy in parallel to standard medical treatment, but not the other 24. "If hospital clowns really do the children good and they facilitate the daily routine of the clinic for the little patients, then they should be a permanent daily part of the nursing and medical team at pediatric wards," said Barthlen in a statement from the University of Greifswald. In order to do so, however, it would be necessary to prove the effectiveness of clown therapy in a controlled study using exact scientific methods. (No)