Humor – a serious weapon in the prevention of depression

Emotion regulation is a very important strategy in depression treatment. How can it be enhanced? A team of researchers, led by scientists form SWPS University Anna Braniecka, Ph.D. and Anna Orylska, Ph.D., has proven that humor, which helps people distance themselves from certain situations, plays an important role in down-regulating negative emotions and up-regulating positive ones.

#depression #emotion regulation #humor #regulation strategies

What we researched:

The tam examined whether humor-based emotion regulation strategies were effective.

How we did it:

The study included 94 participants – 65 women and 29 men – from 18 to 65 years of age. Participants were recruited from outpatient psychiatric clinics. The basic inclusion criterion was a diagnosis of remission after a depressive episode. The study compared two distinct humor based strategies: stress-related humor and stress-unrelated humor.

Why is it important:

Humor proved to be a very promising strategy for emotion regulation and prevention of recurring depressive episodes. However, it is unclear what type of humor is most adaptive in remitted depression.