Clinical Trial Finds Laughter As Effective as Eye Drops for Dry Eyes
Laughter may be as effective as eye drops in improving symptoms of dry eye disease, finds a clinical trial published by The BMJ.
The researchers suggest that laughter exercise could be an initial treatment for relieving symptoms of dry eye disease.
Dry eye disease (DED) is a chronic condition estimated to affect around 360 million individuals worldwide. Common symptoms include uncomfortable, red, scratchy or irritated eyes.
But whether laughter therapy has a beneficial effect on dry eye disease is still unknown.
To explore this further, researchers from China and the UK set out to assess the effectiveness and safety of laughter exercise in patients with symptoms of dry eye disease.
Their findings are based on 283 participants aged 18-45 years (average age 29; 74% female) who were assessed for dry eye disease using the ocular surface disease index (OSDI) score and randomly assigned to receive laughter exercise or 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid eye drops four times a day for eight weeks.
The average OSDI score at eight weeks was 10.5 points lower (indicating less discomfort) in the laughter exercise group and 8.83 lower in the control group, with a mean difference of −1.45 points, suggesting that laughter exercise was no less effective than eye drops.
Laughter exercise also showed significant improvements in non-invasive tear break up time (time taken for the first dry spot to appear on the cornea after a blink), meibomian gland function (oil glands that help prevent tears from evaporating too quickly), and mental health scores. No adverse events were noted in either study group.
Reference: Li, J., Liao, Y., Zhang, S.-Y., Jin, L., Congdon, N., Fan, Z., Zeng, Y., Zheng, Y., Liu, Z., Liu, Y., & Liang, L. (2024). Effect of laughter exercise versus 0.1% sodium hyaluronic acid on ocular surface discomfort in dry eye disease: Non-inferiority randomised controlled trial. BMJ, 386. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj-2024-080474
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