Assessment of the level of sense of humour in patients with a mental health diagnosis attended in acute mental health services

Abstract

Introduction: empathic behaviour uses humour as a communication skill, useful in clinical and mental health contexts. Objective: to assess the level of sense of humour (SH) in patients with a mental health diagnosis attended in acute mental health services. Material and methods: a descriptive, cross-sectional study. To measure SH, the Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale (MSHS), validated into Spanish by Carbelo, was used, obtaining an overall level and a level for each of the three factors that make up the construct: “Factor 1-Competence or ability to use humour”; “Factor 2-Humour as a mechanism for controlling the situation” and “Factor 3-Social appraisal and attitudes towards humour”. Sociodemographic and clinical variables were collected; descriptive and correlational analyses were subsequently carried out. Results: the sample consisted of 61 participants. The mean overall SH score was 55.5. Statistically significant differences were observed between the mental health diagnosis and the overall SH level, in the sense that people with affective disorders obtained higher levels of overall SH (statistical significance level [p] = 0.042). Individually in the factors, patients over 51 years of age tended to have higher SH scores (p = 0.043), compared with patients up to 35 years of age in Factor 3. Regarding Factor 1, patients diagnosed with affective disorders showed greater competence or ability to use humour (p = 0.014) than those with a psychotic disorder. Conclusions: the results obtained suggest that the patients in our sample present moderate levels of SH, from which it can be inferred that we can use and share humour with patients if it is used with respect and ethics.