The Effectiveness of Humor Skills Training on Positive and Negative Symptoms of Chronic Schizophrenia Spectrum

Introduction: Although humor plays an important role in improving people’s mental and physical health, empirical studies on the effectiveness of humor skills training to improve the symptoms of the patients with schizophrenia are scarce. Objective: This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of humor skills training on positive and negative symptoms in male patients with chronic schizophrenia spectrum. Materials and Methods: This research has a quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest and control group. The statistical population consisted of male patients with chronic schizophrenia admitted to rehabilitation centers in Ardabil City, Iran. A sample of 30 patients were selected with cluster random sampling method and randomly divided into two groups of experimental (n=15) and control (n=15). Members of both groups were pretested and humor skills training program using the McGee 8-step plan was administered to the experimental group for 8 sessions. To collect the data, the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was used. The obtained data were analyzed using Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results: Positive and negative symptoms scores significantly decreased after 8 sessions of humor skills training in the experimental group (P=0.001) while there was no significant difference between pretest and posttest scores in the control group (P>0.05). Conclusion: Humor skills training decreased positive and negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Therefore, using this program is recommended to reduce the problems of patients with schizophrenia.